MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Nashville: Lewis Stops Teixeira, UFC 318 Storylines, Craig Jones & Chris Algieri Join The Show

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell and the Morning Kombat crew is back to recap all things from the weekend in combat sports. Two special guests join the show today - Craig Jones and Chris Algieri. The Craig Jones Invitational 2 is taking place Aug. 30 - 31 in Las Vegas at the Thomas & Mack Center. Jones, LT and BC discuss CJI 2, the end of B-Team and the future of BJJ. Chris Algieri also joins the fellas to talk all things boxing including a preview of Manny Pacquiao vs. Mario Barrios that's going down this Saturday in Vegas. In UFC Nashville news, Derrick Lewis absolutely destroyed Tallison Teixeira. With three KOs in his last four fights, would you be offended if Lewis was allowed to cut the line at heavyweight and be Tom Aspinall's next challenger given the extreme lack of depth at heavyweight? Plus, Katie Taylor outpoints Amanda Serrano in the end of trilogy fight, Hamzah Sheeraz brutally KOs Edgar Berlanga at the Ring III event and more! Happy Morning Kombat Monday, Donks!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you You I'm gonna be a good guy. Reveille Reveille. Look at us now. Jesus. Do you want a margarita? uh... uh... or or or yes monday july fourteenth of the twenty five let's kick off a bad ass the maybe pale health and and distinguished gentleman ship but next to me is a nor is a Dc's finest he's a pretty damn good fight analyst for a guy that refuses to fight they call him Luke Thomas

Hey, Luke. How are you? What's up? BC? How was your weekend? It was heavy on work But I will say this the work was fun because box was back this past weekend with those back to back NYC cards and I don't know if you checked the combat schedule for Saturday but it's more loaded than one of your adult diapers in about 25 years. You know what I'm saying? I took a dump that breached the surface today so that's okay. you're crowning like the king of England. Hey, we have a loaded show for you today. Not only are we going to recap UFC Nashville, Taylor's, Serrano three, and really a bad ass balls out all action ring three card from NYC over the over the past weekend. We are going to look ahead in a big way with special guest at noon Eastern, former world champion and a fine boxing analyst, Chris Algeri will join us live from Las Vegas as we set the stage for Pacquiao Barrios.

We got a who's sick to wall part two this weekend, a lot going on. And then at 1230 PM Eastern today, we're going to press pause on BC's feces. and how about we welcome a live guest when I say live, I mean live in Luke's office, Craig Jones of Jiu Jitsu Grappling and Prostitution Circles. Luke, I am fired up for this. Should be a fun one. As you indicated, you know, there's the boxing over the weekend was great. The combat sports calendar, at least in terms of main events this coming weekend is outstanding. So a lot to enjoy and get to.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Luke Thomas, it may be early morning on the East coast, but now is a good time to remember where tequila story actually began. I need to tell you this because in 1795 folks, Cuervo invented tequila. And since then you already know that Cuervo invented tequila and since then, you already know that Cuervo has stayed true to its roots. Same family, same land, same passion. In fact, 230 years later, Cuervo's still here in every pour and every margarita and every celebration.

So enjoy that tequila, that invented tequila. Yeah, it's Cuervo, the tequila that started it all. So why don't you proximo Cuervo.com and please drink responsibly and why don't you get fired up for two days from now, Wednesday, July 16th, live on the Morning Combat YouTube channel, Cuervo presents UFC 318 pregame preview with BC LT Jed Meshew II.

And how about this? Have you seen the shit getting moved to Wednesday also? So, Luke Thomas, we're going to be rocking out with a little bit of that Blanco. If you know what I'm saying as Cuervo and company brings us a fun outing this Wednesday. Yeah, this one's

going to be a real good time and as I've indicated that main event for USC 318, a lot of fun the rest of the card, you know, a little hit or miss but I think a little bit of our friends at Cuervo is going to make it all all all a good time. How about

that? Absolutely. Absolutely here. So don't forget Chris Algieri today at noon Eastern. We'll look at the boxing Craig Jones live on this broadcast at 1230 to talk about leaving the B team and all things CGI 2 in the future of the so a lot to get into today. We may or may not have time for have you seen this year. I'm sorry. DMs from dogs. We'll get to that as it comes. Follow us on the handles below including our extended YouTube channels.

Don't miss Luke's uh Luke's political sub stack is making some moves these days, right? LT. Yeah, dude. I just secured an interview. Uh I won't be able to do it till later in August but um I might be my best one yet. Pretty excited about it. Also, I I just want to say like I'm sorry for the folks. We'll we'll we'll try to get to DMs. I think there's a decent chance we'll do. Have you seen this **** I apologize. We're not going to be able to get to it today in all likelihood but

some of the stuff came together last minute. So, we're just making the best of what we have available to us. So we appreciate everyone's understanding. And a quick hello to our producer, director, Vaughn enthusiast and betting expert. He's one half of the main card minute podcast. He came here on a one way ticket by way of a horned Australians ball bag. Yeah, it is Luke Nocita, but Luke, you mentioned to us off camera that today we got a guest from Long Island and an

Aussie in the building. This is like your Super Bowl, right? It really is. And we got Chris Algeria and Craig Jones because, you know, I'm the Aussie of Australia. But you called me a betting expert to intro me BC. Went perfect this weekend. Six for six on the main card. So let's go.

Big weekend. Big weekend for main card. Also, my boy asked me to be his best man this weekend. That was a high. Wow. Yes. Pretty big weekend in me and Carmen. Also, my boy asked me to be his best man this weekend. That was a highlight. Wow. Oh, yeah. It's a pretty big weekend in the

Nocita household, alright? Alright. Decent boyfriend too. You know, you gotta give Luke Nocita that credit right there. Alright, fire it up. Thank you for joining us, Luke. I had something I wanted to say about Nocita. Everyone on the

internet thinks you're gonna talk about Conor McGregor's pecker. That was it. That was what I forgot to bring up. Thank you so much. Yeah. Hey, look at the unit on that guy. What are we? Was that a cock ring? What are we doing here? That guy's a dirt hole, Luke. Yeah, it's pretty fucking gross. So he what he said, Dick. So this is the same 24 hour period where photos emerge of Connor with a new mistress on the beach.

And then he gets caught sending stick pics to Connor with a new mistress on the beach and then he gets caught sending stick picks to uh a singer rapper. What was the lady's name? Azalea Banks. I think is her name. Yes and she outed him by going public with the uh you just have to imagine if he sent that to

her, he's probably sent that like a million times to other people, right? Ref are of Jen Sturger probably Probably a lot of different people. That's an old school pull right there. Wow. Okay. Here we go. Wow. Wow. What a gross human that

man, right? He's terrible. He's terrible. Yeah. He reminds me of all those people who go to morning.com at gmail dot com and do the same to Mikey but you know, that's that's neither here nor there. Alright, that's it. We gotta

get into it. We got a busy show. Topic number one begins right now. UFC Nashville over the weekend was a fight night card that hey, it wasn't that strong on paper. I thought we got fireworks through a lot of it including in that main event when Derek Lewis pissed all over Taliesin Tashara, the young heavyweight in just 35 seconds. He got him out of there. Now look already the UFC record holder for most career KOs. The 40 year old Lewis would say leading up to this fight that he felt disrespected by being put in there with a guy who only had one UFC fight coming in.

So not only did the Black Beast get in his best shape in 11 years, he rebounded from very early damage to get another TKO finish and afterwards he played all his hits including a new one of a mock urination on the corner of Toshiro who he accused his team of speaking to him in Brazilian he didn't understand but he's sure they were talking shit. So Luke Thomas this now puts the lovable Lewis at three wins in his last four all by knockout yet albeit against second rate competition. Yet even though when given a chance to call out his next opponent, Lewis hilariously called out his own wife and made a few sex jokes there, they were talking on the broadcast about the idea of Lewis potentially cutting the line as a fresh opponent for Tom Aspinall. So Luke, if this was allowed for a guy who fought for

a title once before and just won't go away in this heavyweight division, would you be insulted by it given the extreme lack of depth that maybe, just maybe, Derrick Lewis could be in line for Tom Aspinall? I don't think that's crazy, nor should it be seen as crazy, nor should it be seen as anything frankly even undesirable. I mean obviously everyone's mileage is going to vary in terms of what fights get them excited and who they think is deserving, but we said it on Friday's MK which deserves to be repeated here. Heavyweight is kind of like flyweight now and guys are going to get title shots maybe more quickly

than you might imagine. In this particular case they're're gonna get one. It's been a while since he fought DC, but under, let's say, relatively expedited circumstances given the winning streak. And I'm basically okay with it. I'm not saying he has to be next for Tom Aspinall if they wanted to make the serial gon fight. That is the better fight, at least in theory, that we think, because you would imagine,

on some level, Gon might be able to give Tom some problems problems and it's a fresh matchup. This one is too but you know that one's a little bit more of a higher caliber. However dude Derrick Lewis is beloved. Derrick Lewis is you can make an argument about who is the best knockout artist of all time but he is certainly at a bare minimum the most prolific and the most prolific in this heavyweight division. People like him. He's guaranteed action. It's a fresh matchup. The division needs some help. Guys are gonna get expedited title shots. This is great. I don't know. I mean this is them making the best of the circumstances that they have and whatever else you want to say about a fight between Tom Aspinall and Derrick Lewis, it won't be boring and if I may be saying one more

thing, Tom Aspinall is obviously very very good but one of the reasons why the John Jones fight was important was for any many reasons, subtle unification, blah blah blah but there are a lot of unknowns about Tom Aspinall and some of the stuff that shows up on tape about his chin being high in the air and getting clipped, you know Derwis. I don't know that I would favor him to win But that kind of threat cannot be dismissed either i've seen guys get wrecked Trying to you'll be nonchalant about knockout threats the kind that derek lewis poses So I understand it's unusual bc. This is not how other divisions in a healthy way would Operate but we are where we are and this is a pretty good option

Yeah, I'm surprised that I'm not upset by it. I mean there really is a Wasteland of potential options for him gone not coming off the strongest performance. So there's a lot of questions out there I'm not trying to act like Lewis has defeated top-rate opposition But I wonder if that even matters Long Island. Can we show the side by side here as Luke Thomas needs to be? Awarded for mentioning last week that Lewis did come in maybe just four pounds under the heavyweight limit. You got sent held again Did I so the image on the right is from a video that is AI? Okay. Okay, man. I get MMA sent held like no one's business. I always wondered how can fake news spread because it seems so obviously fake and then I met dullards like you and I Well, you know what sense I did drop out of college to be fair, but look the larger point

He obviously got motivated to get in really good shape and prove a point He typically does that over his because his elite career has had so many highs and lows and you know, bad stretches where he's not training hard, not running. He's done that before coming off of losses. This time it felt like maybe he realized there was an opening with John Jones not coming through that door. So I got to ask you, is a motivated and fit Derek Lewis, even at age 40, still about equally as dangerous as he's ever been when he does make these runs at the belt that of course ended with the loss to Daniel Cormier at MSG. He badly lost an interim title fight to Cyril Gahn in Houston that time.

But Luke, like he's kind of the same dangerous. If he's in shape, he's hella dangerous. And that's the bottom line, right? I again, he could get taken down and thrashed.ashed I mean not too long ago Sergei Spivak submitted him in the first round we kind of have to be honest about what we have here he is a limited fighter in very key and fundamental ways however he's also a very dangerous fighter in key and fundamental ways and to the point you raise BC this is something I've actually we'll talk about later when we talk about UFC 318, we kind of associate Max

Holloway's peak when he was champion in the featherweight division. But BC, I went back and I watched their second fight. If you compare the guy who fought Justin Poirier then to the guy who knocked out Justin Gagey, it's just a massively different guy. And so to the point you raise, you kind of associate guys with their peak moment in terms of, you know, um, uh, where they reached heights relative to the rest of the division. But I do agree with you. I mean, for example, like that one thing where he pretends to be injured and then floors guys,

you tried it again here at it to an extent, at least set up some of the offense he was able to score ultimately in the end. He has a ton of veteran savvy. He doesn't panic in bad spots. So he's got are real and they probabl him against the guy as we Aspen all. However, howe cannot be denied at all.

cannot be denied at all. off off of bottom cannot again, given the state of the division, are these things enough to warrant a title shot and to have at least a modicum of interest in it? I would argue that it would. I have to agree with you. Let's hear from Louis who talks exactly what Luke mentioned about playing possum with Tishara,

which really opened the door for that 35 second finish. I was acting like someone was in my eye and I was waiting for him to get a little closer. He didn't get close enough for the first time so I really was trying to make it, trying to sell it, make it seem like he had got me in my eye pretty good and that's what happened. I called him. Then I noticed he was trying to pull himself up on the cage. I'm like, man, come on man. He had me hit my own leg. I'm trying to knock my own leg out of socket Yeah, so it was messed up. Did you expect the ref to come in and stop it right there?

Yes, I expect the rest the rest should have been stopping see one in and out a couple of times It was like before he even started grabbing the cage. So When you threw that left hand, did you know if it connected that it was gonna send him down? I know if I throw anything at anybody no matter what it is. I know that it's gonna go down He was the king of the Texacab drives in Brazil Wow But no, I don't want to easy fighting like that. I want You know, of course, I would like to do one more run at the title. That'd be good Too much too soon for T'shera had seemed that way but Luke

What do you make of the stoppage which has gotten a lot of talk? I felt in real time like it was too soon. Tashara did aggressively break the rules and use the cage to lift himself up. Maybe that led to the referee's decision. How did you view it? Yeah, I didn't care for the stoppage but I want to be clear. It seemed like Derek was, I mean, my view is Derek was, based on the way that that one went, he was gonna win no matter what. I mean, there was almost no circumstance

where I think he wouldn't have won. And I'm not in any way mad that he won, but I didn't love the stoppage. And I keep seeing these arguments made about the stoppage that I just don't understand. Being dead serious, I don't understand at all. People are pointing out that he used the fence to stand. He put his fingers, you can push on the fence, but you obviously can't

grab the inside of it, right? And so he did. That is against the rules. But first of all, I'm just gonna say like the nature of the rules itself. That's much more important when someone's trying to return you to the mat. But okay, putting that aside, just did he break the rules? He broke the rules. But if you're going to if the referee is going to stop about based on a foul, like grabbing the fence and in particular, this is actually itemized for fence grabbing, a, they typically have to give a warning, but even that you could say, oh, I didn't want to do it because it was, you know, in the heat of the moment, you can do it on a DQ. So if you decide

as a referee that grabbing the fence was so egregious in this particular case, you can just disqualify him. And you can even say say, hey listen, he did it right at the moment where he was about to be finished. This is an egregious foul, right? Like fouling your way to prevent a stoppage in some kind of way. Then it should have been a DQ, but people are not making that argument. What they're making the argument is, oh he broke the rules he was getting pounded on, therefore that's a stoppage. And I'm like, that's actually not how the rules work at all. That's not what they say, that's not what they show, that's a stoppage and I'm like that's actually not how the rules work at all. That's not what they say. That's not what they show. That's not what they call for and people

are also saying BCL grabbing the fence to get to to get to your feet is not intelligent defense. It's the definition of intelligent defense building height getting to your feet. That's exactly what someone should be doing. Now they shouldn't be doing it by grabbing the fence. So the method of how he did it is a problem, but the notion that like, because you broke a rule and you are also getting pounded on, therefore you can just call it. You can, but it has to be a DQ. It's not grounds for saying

they're not intelligently defending themselves. In fact, it's the opposite of that. So I didn't love the stoppage, but I don't in any way view the result as like illegitimate. Derek Lewis was gonna fucking win. He was gonna fucking win. I just didn't think the stoppage went as smoothly as it could. Do you agree with the Black Beast saying

he was kind of in and out of consciousness leading up to that? He might be right. I mean, obviously he's the closest one to that. It was a little harder for me to tell on before we got on the broadcast. Again, dude, he was gonna win. Like this is not some controversial like, oh my god, the guy got robbed. No. It's just, it's just the method of how it was done doesn't make a lot of sense. But he might be right. He might, the guy might have been out and so it's, I want to be

as clear as I possibly can. I have zero issue with Eric Lewis winning. I just think if you're going to make the argument that grabbing the fence should, it should be penalized. The penalty for it is a point and or a DQ. It's not, oh, he's not intelligently defending himself. Building height is intelligent defense. Period. Yeah. Joe is something Joe Rogan has really never worked on at all.

Luke, to be fair. Uh, we got Dana White reacting to the stoppage, by the way, breaking news, Dana White was at a fight night card. He reacted to the stoppage. He talked about the Trump phone call and addressed that idea we're bringing up. Is Derrick Lewis in the title picture? Let's hear from the boss. You're sitting there, you're watching Derrick get a knockout and then President Trump just calls you on the spot? No. Derrick came over and said, where's the president? I said, he's not here tonight.

I said, but he's watching. And I got him on the phone and put him on the phone with him. Do you have any idea what Derek wanted to say to him? I have no idea what you have to ask him. I don't know what they talked about. Maybe he's trying to book himself a fight on the White House card. That's what everybody's trying to do right now.

So then obviously, with that being said, Derek could really, if you look at the division as it is, be maybe one fight away from getting a title shot next or something like that. I think that's the way the heavyweight division has always been. I mean, these know, they don't have to cut, some of them have to cut, but they don't have to cut a lot of weight. And you know, the fight can a fight can turn with one punch. Whoever lands that big shot, and they were both trying to land them,

and he got him. I thought the stoppage was a little fast, you know, but this is what it is. I didn't think it was a little fast too, as well, just for the record there. Also real quick, not that, you know, maybe people, I don't know, Luke, if you care about the contents of that Donald Trump call, but it was interesting when they came back from commercial and the DL was on the line, I did catch a Derek Lewis pre-fight interview in which he said that he would love to talk to Trump but he was referencing all the prior convictions that he was hoping to get pardoned on his record. Okay, that's funny. But they did catch up with Derek Lewis afterwards to ask him that question. His response was predictably out of balance. Let's listen. When did you know you wanted to speak to President Trump? Oh, I've been telling Dana a couple of weeks now.

I need to talk to him about something. Could you tell us what that something is? No, man, no. Would it be about maybe fighting at the world? It's classified. Oh, it's classified. Are you an agent now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's classified. It's almost something about terrorists and stuff like that.

Oh, serious? Yeah. Serious stuff. Mm-hmm. Are they signing you up? You're going to join the FBI? We don't like the FBI right now. Me and Trump, you know, they're trying to they're trying to get that list out of us. But I, so I had to call. I had to tell the president, hey, you know, make sure they don't let, I got you.

Don't have my name on their list, you know, make sure they don't let them. I got you. Don't have my name on that list. You know, Luke, that lips, that list would be the Epstein list and he definitely didn't kill himself. Are you of the, oh wait, we're not on Luke Thomas. Substack. I was going to ask if you were of the belief that Trump is now switching gear just to avoid assassination or maybe that's too deep for a Monday morning. I don't know. I did see him get booed at the FIFA World Cup club World Cup final.

That was funny. All right. We got a loaded show, so we got to keep it going. Let's go to this co-main event, which has brought out some responses here as a Walter weight tilt between the rising Gabriel Bonfim and the plus 40 bet veteran wonder boy. the the the the the

the the the the In the end though, the fight was a little bit back and forth and there was an argument that maybe Wonder Boy should have gotten the win as we quickly look at these picture of these scorecards Which go down as a split decision you see Mike Bell giving rounds one and three to bone theme same as Dave Torelli But it was Rick Winter who gave rounds two and three for Wonder Boy and it felt like MMA Twitter agreed with him Most Luke was Wonder Boy screwed out of a victory in this fight that he fought through some tough moments there to shine. I definitely think there's a case for Wonder Boy here for sure.

I mean, I put the scorecards up one more time if you can. OK, so so my scorecard is Rick Winters. But if you notice, everyone is unanimous on rounds one and two so then the question becomes what about round three and how did you score it and my answer would be I scored it for for Wonderboy but BC. I don't know thank you long on Luke. I don't know if it's the same people what I'm about to say. I don't know, but I definitely hear a lot of people saying well, you

know, I don't like standups and I don't like referee involvement and if you're being held against the fence or you're being controlled on the ground, it's your job to fix it. And I've been trying to explain to people this is not a great way to organize a sport. It doesn't make a lot of sense. You need the referees to intervene when positions get stalled out. And it looked to me BC like Bon Feen was stalling him out. He was clinching him up against the fence, stalling him out, not doing necessarily a ton of meaningful offense but just keeping Wonder Boy there to kind of run out the

clock. The referee in my judgment should have been more willing to break it up but the more willing to break it up. But the bigger point is he should have been empowered to do that. I cannot believe that people make arguments for stalling in MMA. Because that's exactly what you're gonna get. Guys can neutralize one another, but then they can't extract themselves

from the situation that they're in, and it just holds steady. You need to empower referees to break them apart. Because BC, the thing I really, I took from this was Wonder Boy striking is still, like I wasn't sold on Bond theme on Friday's show and I'm still not really sold on Bond theme. He's obviously got some ability but I don't know if he's all that great. Wonder Boy at age, what is he 42 at this point, like whatever number he is. His striking, pert

still accurate. Like there his career. And I'm not s guys are just using contr theiti break them apart. And if for it, we should make th I don't know if that's ho feels, but I just hear th about now if you're if yo your job to get up. This

who is doing the stalling need to keep it up. And i what Bonfim did. Yeah, I would agree with you. I also thought when he got hurt at the end of round two, it sort of changed his desire to mix it up there with the 42 year old Thompson. Luke, this is five losses in six fights now for Wonder Boy. Even if the general public says, hey, we need a deeper examination of this fight. I think you said what we learned, which is true, that even with that sort of dark record turn with five defeats and six fights, they've come against very good competition.

He's clearly showing you that he's still got it at this level, which is a credit to the shape he's kept himself in and the incredible speed and reaction times he's always held. But was this the fight that tells you Bone Femme, or at least Brother G Bone Femme here, isn't gonna get over that hump. That he's got the flashy submission skills, he can take out the B- guys in spectacular fashion,

but he may never get over that hill to true contention. Yeah, this was an opportunity for him, and yes, he got the W, but he didn't pass the test. I mean, I think we can all kind of agree with that at this point. He you're right. The B minus guys, he might be able to feast on them, you know, quick guillotines and a number of other things he can do. But Wonder Boy has been kind of been serving as a guy. Hey, can you graduate to the next level in this division? That's what Wonder Boy has been kind of offering for people. And some of the better ones have obviously been able to get past. But Bon Fime had to eek to the next level in this division. That's what Wonder Boy has been kind of offering for people. And some of the better ones have obviously been able to get past.

But Bon Femme had to eke to the finish line and stall his way to do it. This was not a very convincing win such that you can call it a win. I mean, technically it went obviously, but such as you can call it like a authoritative victory. It's this was this was none of those things. I think this is the reason why a lot of us were like, you know, Bon Femme's good, but he's not like really good. This was just a reminder of that.

He kind of is what he is at this point. He'll beat some guys for sure, but I don't know if he's going to ascend to the top of this division anytime soon. Yeah, I'm with you on there. Hey, let's talk about featherweight Steve Garcia at 33 years old who extended his win streak to six with a 30-27, I believe, across the board performance against Calvin cater a shutout. It was dominant. Is Steve Garcia a legitimate player at

145 moving forward? Yes, I do think he is. I thought this was a nice win. He was a little nervous early, but I thought he really settled in. Uh, the longer that fight went, he got smoother and smoother. His combinations got better and you could just tell he was thinking more on his feet as the time went on, and that's why some of the striking got better over the course of that bout. So I want to be very clear, I'm absolutely taking nothing from him. Your question was, is he a real player in this? The answer is absolutely yes. In this division, he is someone to note. The win streak is legitimate.

This was a very, I would just say a good opponent, certainly. And he's doing interesting things. He is putting together a skillset and a run that simply cannot be denied. However, BC, however, I think if you watch tape from Kader from a few years ago, there's really no way to deny that like he's lost a step. And people point to like Max beating them up

as one of the things that could have been one, he rebounded from that a but the ACL surgery and e he's just not the same g that to be disparaging. cartel. We like Tyson, S Calvin cater. But the tap don't believe me and you'

or whatever, just go look enough format. Let's say go look a few fights of gun. I'm the format. Let's say a few years ago, go look at some of the ones, uh, the performances he was turning in and he just looked a little bit more dynamic, ready, um, light on his feet thinking. And he just seems to get caught flat footed or just be there to be hit a lot more than he wants to. Now defense was never necessarily his strongest suit,

but there was just more going on. It seems like there's just the less, easily able to do less now over the course of time. So Steve absolutely is leveling up, but I don't think that that's the entire story. Part of the story is the decline of Cater. Yeah, Cater did have the upper hand on Rob Font in that most recent DraftKings commercial with John Anick,

where he's putting him in a chokehold there in the DraftKings studio. So hopefully he gets some of that cheddar. You mentioned Tyson Chartier. How about I mention Morgan Charier? Charier? Charier. I don't speak French. I have no fucking idea. I should learn his name soon, Luke, because this featherweight's exciting as balls and him and Nate the Train and the UFC put on nearly three rounds of back and forth, bad shit, craziness. Charier getting an absolutely and he's got the balls and him like the Arsenio whoo whoo pump fist I was because I was like doing like the Arsenio of those th like at the end, he was l what? I'm just going to c be the more dynamic strik what you got in the end.

was actually something of Morgan to pass. I wouldn' with flying colors, but h a very good job and I thi bit of adversity showed s you know, some of the wrestling, it was interesting, like he would get to Landweir's hips very quickly.

Landweir with a hard wizard was able to like really challenge some of those positions. So like, this was some real resistance that he faced from a guy who was not as technically skilled, but had that dog in him. We all know that Nate Landweir is famous for that. And trying to deal with that is not so simple. So the fact that he got it done in the end, maybe took him a little bit longer than you

would have preferred, but got the job done, hand raised, authoritative finish. Pretty good job by the Frenchman. Pretty good job. Yeah. I mean, Landwehr has such great conditioning to go with his love of getting involved in blood and guts wars that he never stops coming. I like that charrier didn't break. I did see a lot of criticism online of people saying, stop shoulder rolling and trying to point fight this crazy guy. This guy's going

to try to make it a bat shit crazy brawl. And the quicker you identify that, meet him halfway and get him out of there, the easier the job will be. I wonder if charrier learns a lesson here, Luke, because he did have the striking advantage when they would exchange at the same time. And every time he touched land where he was moving him. So I'm glad he finally found that before the fight ended and was able to get him out of there. But a fun bit of theater. I got to jump down to that undercard.

Luke, I was fired up for Johnny Walker's brother, the heavyweight, Walter Walker, to come in here and make his UFC debut and then need less than a minute to do crazy shit, get a quick submission, act like a maniac. Is this now the preferred crazy Walker brother? Not just from the standpoint of potentially spreading his seed all over Scotland, but

coming in and doing crazy, exciting, highlight real shit. I'm going to say this. Obviously getting wins like this are fun. They stand out. they're interesting. He's gotten several of them now and at heavyweight, it's unusual to see someone who can just sit for 50-50 heel hooks basically. On the other side, I just wanna be clear,

this is a gimmicky way to win. You are going to beat some guys along the way doing this, absolutely. But you're not gonna win a title doing this and you're probably not going to be the number one contender and maybe even the fighter before that. I mean, heavyweight's a little thin so it's harder to say. He might be able to take this pretty far

just doing this but there is a very big difference between guys who can clamp for quick submissions and then guys who can methodically set it up and the ones who can methodically set it up have a significantly higher skill base. So, heavyweight's a little weak, and this is a fun thing he's doing, you can't deny it. But I just, I'm not sure how far you're gonna be able to take something like this without the other portions

of the skill set. Well, let me dead wrong myself. That was not his UFC debut. As you mentioned, he's now had four fights in the UFC. He's three and one since that loss to Luca, breast, uh, Luca, uh, Luca, Don, no, Lucas, risky Lucas, Breski, uh, uh, with the fishes there, uh, unanimous decision straight that since then it's been three straight heel hooks. And when you say gimmicky submissions, are you referencing the McKenzie team? That's also, yes. That's another guy. He didn't have the ability to methodically set it up. He could just jump and then clamp and that's you dude. You can beat a lot of guys with a quick clamp. It's actually very, very effective.

You get my point. Yeah, I'm just saying that's very different than Charles Olivera. Charles Olivera has a clamp too. But if you can't get it, that's fine. He'll just methodically set it up and then submit you from there. That's what I'm talking about. There's a big gap between those kinds of guys. So is he dangerous? Yes, but there's a difference. Yeah, he's exciting as shit. What else from this undercard moved you over the weekend loop? The opening bout I thought was actually pretty interesting between the ladies here. You know, I complain all the time that it's not that exciting with a women fight, but this is a very different kind of they were mismatches. They put two chick mismatches down there and they were exciting, right? That's fine. But at least they delivered, right?

I mean, sometimes I've seen some mismatches and the person couldn't put the other one away. At least this particular case you got with the team of Klein with a nice sort of head kick finish. Also, Mike Davis is very good. Mike Davis had a bit of a like, you bit of a rough run early in his UFC career where sometimes he didn't perform up to a level with an injury. He had, I think, a tough fight against Sadiq Yusuf on Contender Series.

Maybe that was, I believe that's right. But in this fight against Mitch Ramirez, he showed a lot of freaking skill and he's well-rounded. And this is a guy who I think at this point is starting to get to more of the, a little bit of the methodical side of setting up offense, not just submissions. So I really like that as well. I thought that Jake Matthews whenever cheating in Chikwani was a little anti-climactic because

it happened so quickly. Also, shots to Chris Curtis going down to 170. He had to kind of, you know, gut it out late into the fight, but Max Griffin made it hard for him. He still got the job done. So well done by him. Oh, Long Island Luke, you are a, you know, diehard when it comes to these prelims. How will you remember 41-year-old Lauren Murphy now that she says goodbye to the U.S.? Oh, God, that fight was awful, I'm not gonna lie.

I think Luke not giving Jake Matthews his credit there, man. Dude, that was a sick fight. Shout out Jake Matthews. Jake Matthews has good submissions, but Chidinjit Kowani, it's like, this is something, I mean, I know he's a black belt now, but it's like, this is something he's always kind of struggled with, you know? Yeah, but Jake Matthews, nice to get a bounce back. Oh, actually, I think that's a few in

a row now for him, but either way, he always like looks good against someone and then kind of falters. Yeah. So it's nice to see him go. Maybe that's it. Maybe that's what I'm feeling. Yeah. It's a nice win. Both people you already shouted out, you know, Fatima Klein from Long Island, gorgeous head kick and Mike Davis from upstate New York. You know, shout out. Just saying. This guy's always calling out the locals, the Aussies, the Long Islanders, all those

people. Upstate New York is the land that time forgot. There you go. I agree with that. UFC Nashville now behind us. What ahead of us is of course is UFC 318 get fired up not just pregame preview this Wednesday but UFC 318 is the last time of course that Dustin Poirier will step inside the octagon. Wanna know the easiest way to get on the action this weekend and win some

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Let's go to topic number two. It took place in New York City, Madison Square Garden, and Netflix with the big trilogy between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. And asking these two future Hall of Famers to out deliver their legendary first two fights was already going to be a difficult challenge. But despite a fantastic promotion from Jake Paul's most valuable promotions and Netflix and an absolutely electric atmosphere

at MSG on Friday night, along with some great production from Netflix, you got to shout it out. Their third fight turned out to be very tentative, yet competitive. Kind of felt in real time like a bit of a dud. Despite the split decision result, there wasn't much outrage this time as Katie Taylor earned a deserved victory, her third overall against Serrano. Luke, was this victory more of the result

of Katie Taylor at 39 proving once and for all that she's the more superior boxer of the two? Or do you bring up and Amanda Serrano's very questionable game plan and maybe even her lack of urgency that ultimately cost her in the end? Yeah, I think it's both. I mean, Katie Taylor going two and oh was no scandal.

We've been over this a million times. It was no scandal. I thought Serrano won at least one of those, but it's not a scandal and I had no problem with it. But to me, it left a little bit of doubt, like what is actually possible if they can make the adjustments. And we all thought on Friday, quite wrongly, that this was going to be a barn murder.

This was definitely quite a letdown for me. It was not a bad fight. I'm not going to sit here and say it was some kind of terrible affair, but it wasn't very good and it wasn't very interesting. Look at the sparring match, Luke. Be honest. It kind of felt like a sparring match at times. I mean, it wasn't horrible. It just wasn't much. It just was, you know, it was whatever.

That's not to say Netflix didn't do an unbelievable job and then Jake Paul as well, which I'm sure we'll talk about. But just sticking with the fight, BC, I hated Amanda Serrano's game plan. I hated it. She is an offense first fighter and that was a defense first plan. If you're that kind of fighter, you're offense first and your game plan is defense first, you can do that for a little while, right? I'm gonna slow bleed the fight and then change and turn it up late.

But she never did. How do you expect to beat Katie Taylor when the range at which you're fighting and the pace at which you're fighting is something that uniquely advantages her and it's a pace that she can maintain the entire fight. That was that was not a winning game plan. That was not a winning effort. Now people have rightly pointed out that like the fact that after 20 rounds and a long career both of them were probably you

know not necessarily looking forward to a blood and guts kind of fight which I can appreciate that. To be fair It didn't have to be. To be fair, it didn't have to be blood and guts. It didn't have to be. It could have been more than what it was. I understand it's not either or, but the thing is Serrano doesn't know how to calibrate, right?

She's either all in or she's all out, and she was all out. And so I think Katie Taylor was like, sweet, I'm happy to box on the outside. And dude, people were calling that fight close. The rounds were not like a huge swing one way or the other, but it looked to me like Katie was definitely the superior boxer between them,

especially on the terms of which they were fighting. She was the one with the Olympic pedigree. She was the one who was landing and exiting. She was coming over the top with the jab. She was catching her with check hooks and then exiting. And Serrano never really did anything to adjust it. Again, if she's shop worn and she just didn't want to go through the war anymore, I get

it. But the game plan that she had, she was never going to win with that. You could fight Katie Taylor a hundred times with that game plan if you're Amanda Serrano. You're going to lose all 100. I freaking hated, hated, hated that game plan. It wasn't just a bad game plan in my opinion. I think it was poor execution of that game plan. It wasn't just a bad game plan in my opinion. I think it was poor execution of that game plan. She stood from distance far to out spamming jabs that really had no chance of connecting. And it wasn't like she was spamming those to set up her left crosses. I feel like she didn't use the weapons that she brought to the table there. Maybe crowding her given the two minute rounds and really trying to get her on the inside going to the body would have been a better strategy but but the fact that she had no adaptability during such a big fight on such a grand stage that so

many people work so hard to build and obviously they were part of building that in a lot of ways I felt bad for her after having two fights in which she performed so well where you can make an argument for both she just did I mean she didn't even look good in that game plan. And look, this is where those two minute rounds, which when it's fast paced, when it's all action, like the first two fights in which Serrano was pushing a crazy pace, those are hard to score

because there's just so much happening and both are having success. But when you do the opposite in two minute rounds and you hold the ball and you slow it down, and then we're basically in the end going to judge where the three, four punches of Taylor off of clean counter shots in which she got in and out more valuable than the spamming jabs, some of which touch Taylor, a couple body shots from Serrano. Yeah, Taylor shots are going to win out.

They're cleaner. They're powerful. They're more memorable. Her technique was better. Everything about it was better. So it wasn't just a disappointment for me in the game plan, it was the lack of an adjustment. She didn't even execute that well and I really thought her corner with Jordan Maldonado, her brother-in-law, manager and trainer, there was really just no talk of adjustments. Maybe they felt they were deeper in the fight than they were in terms of the scores and obviously with the split decision they weren't that far off but still if Toronto had won a backdoor

decision here, it wouldn't have been this triumphant moment. It would have been for the third straight fight. Maybe the wrong fighter one, right? I mean, she clearly did not get the better of the two. Now, I don't think she deserves the

full-on meme treatment but Luke Boxing Twitter gave it to her after the fight. It's fucking brutal. Yeah. Given her the Edgar Belonga, Puerto Rico parade after he lost to Canelo experience right there. I feel bad for Serrano because she has fought so well in this series up to that point. We talk about it. We should talk about it.

They promoted the absolute shit out of this card. I love the production, which they spent a shit ton on and it worked. It looked great. I don't know. I mean, I didn't necessarily love Sean Grandi who I thought did a great job calling the fights. I didn't love his over the top salesmanship that we're watching this classic. We'll never forget. No, just kind of operating under the assumption that this fight was just as good as the first two and it simply was not. And I'm not necessarily blaming the two fighters in this case because a lot of times in boxing history a big war in one fight will lead to a like look at Barrera Morales, one of the greatest

trilogies of all time, the Mexican War. Number two was not a war. It was a safe sort of point fighting decision. It happens at times, but considering the stakes considering what was put into it. I don't know if this main event was the best advertisement for women's boxing when it was really set up to be the perfect one moving forward. Yeah, I mean, I realize women's boxing is in a different place than men's boxing, right?

So like some of these questions are not together altogether unfair, but like turning every single women's fight into a referendum on women's boxing just seems a little bit much to me. Again, the fight was not great. We can all say that, but it was promoted expertly. The production looked fucking incredible. You know, it just didn't deliver and not all fights do.

Do you think this helps Taylor's argument and potentially being considered the greatest female fighter of all time? She's certainly up against it from someone like Clarissa Shields, the current pound for pound queen who's won titles in five divisions, you know, undisputed than two. But now Katie Taylor at 39 has three wins over Amanda Serrano. She avenged her only loss to Chantel Cameron. She's a bigger star, you could argue, than any of the women boxing today. What do you think this fight did to her legacy? A lot, actually.

I mean, again, the question, this is the problem with the way that it went. Serrano kind of went out, maybe with a whimper is too strong, but the reason the third fight was exciting on paper was you thought, okay, well, we just saw 20 rounds of these two killing each other. Like this is going to be great. but also that there was some dispute, right? There was dispute over, yeah, Katie Taylor got her hand raised, but there's dispute over whether she should have, and then after the third one, you're like, you know what? Maybe there shouldn't have been dispute. I mean, again, you could still go

back and watch the first two and decide that Serrano won. I don't think it's unfair. I'm just saying it closed in a reasonably authoritative way to the point where it almost made you realize, yeah, this was a one sided rivalry might be a little bit strong, but like one person clearly is the better of the other one and they had three chances and they came up short on all three nights. You know, I don't know how that does anything but buttress your case, uh, not merely as the better of the two in the rivalry But it ultimately your place in women's boxing history

This is this dude she did Amanda Serrano did not do everything that she could and needed Katie Taylor But Katie Taylor did everything she needed to and that to me was the big difference and she did it with skill Yeah, that that goes a long way in my book Taylor would not commit after whether she will retire or continue fighting, but the whole idea of whether a trilogy against Chantel Cameron, who won on this undercard in her first fight under the MVP banner, Taylor gave a cold response to that idea

when asked after the fight. Maybe, I think Chantel has to see if she can set out a 1000 seed arena first. I don't think she can sell out any stage at all. So I think I made her more money than she really deserves to who I've asked about that. What do you think, Eddie? I don't know if she needs a translator,

but she said Cameron needs to sell out a 1,000 seat arena first and probably has made more money from Taylor than she deserves. I like this kind of like victory lab trash talk from, from, from her that we're seeing lately. Luke, you into that? I mean, at this point in her career, she's looking to start starting to look to me like she's all out of fucks to give. So I'm, I'm about it.

Alicia Baumgartner also in her first way fight with MVP won a competitive decision over Jennifer Marshall to defend her undisputed 130 pound title in the co main. It was her first fight under new trainer, Derek James. And then she called out Katie Taylor afterwards. Luke, do you think that could be a fight in which bomb gardener will have to move up multiple weight divisions, but she's been threatening to do that to fight Clarissa shields. Do you think this could be a very big fight moving forward and one maybe that Taylor would want? I don't know. I didn't. The co-main event to me was the least interesting about on this card. Um, I know bum gunner one, but I didn't think

it was a very decisive performance. She, the thing is the LBC, she did get a win. She can promote really well. You know, she's got a certain look. Um, that could go a long way. So I would not be surprised if they do it. If you're asking me though, am I like particularly excited for that one? I don't know. It's so so. Alright. Uh quickly, Shadesha Green, the former college basketball player, won most valuable promotions, $250,000 post fight bonus for her performance in a very close decision over Samantha Savannah Marshall to unify titles at 168. Luke,

we've been following today's story for a while. Uh, it was a inspirational sort of tear felt moment afterwards, but did the judges get it right in your eyes? It was close. I could see why Savannah Marshall had a case. I, I was close. It was to me, you know, coin flip ish, very, very close. But I will say to It was you know, coin flippish ve I will say to your point, to Shazia Green years ago on Jake Paul under cards.

her a long time. That's w Jake Paul to promote her. is doing something very, the sport and he's doing I don't really have a pro winning. Come to my head BC, I would maybe have gone with Marshall, but I, you know, there were, there were, this was a competitive bout.

Green I thought did better in the middle parts and Savannah a little bit better early. So it's just, it's a tough call. It's a tough call. Savannah was coming off a two year boxing layoff as she was doing MMA training for PFL in between. Now Green becomes an opponent potentially for Clarissa Shields who has a fight at Heavyweight coming up. But how about the announce, one

of the announcers on this Netflix card, Layla Ali, making this statement after the fight about maybe whether she'll come out of retirement at 47 against Clarissa. Layla, last one, Clarissa Shields. There's rumors that you're going to come back and fight her. Everybody's talking about about it or in the boxing circle. The rumor that I heard was that I said that unless somebody had 15, 20 million, don't even call me about this. Turkey has that money. Turkey's going to slip this up. I know it. Unless somebody calls me and says they have it, we're not even going to have a conversation. I'm not trying to come back and fight, but if someone offered that kind of money, I would actually have to think about it. I'll talk to Turkey tonight. I look like I could fight again.

Yes, you do. I think so. Yeah. Beautiful too. Luke, would that do anything for you? Is that the type of fight you think? This scumbag, you look beautiful too, honey. Yeah.

Let's go master this and bust up. I'm never going to not mention it. I'll always say Clarissa, or sorry, Layla is, you know, potentially a Mount Rush war and one of the greatest of all time, undefeated in her career. She ducked Ann Wohl straight up. She also could have fought Shields early in Clarissa's run when they had some big trash talk moments around the time that Layla was 40. Now at 47, even if Turkey bought in, paid her 15 million, and was all into the storyline because she's Ali's daughter, do you give her a chance in that fight? Not really. I don't wanna see that. She's 40, she's nearly 50.

You see, I'm 45 and my back hurts if I sleep wrong taking a nap. I mean, I realize that Leila's a better athlete, but I'm just saying this is not a sport where 47-year-olds are dynamic talents with rare exception. And maybe she could be that, you know? I wouldn't completely dismiss the idea,

but you know, B-hop is special for a reason, no. Yeah, let's see if Manny Pacquiao can add himself at 46 on Saturday night. Let's go to topic number three. It was the ring three card from Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York. And in that main event, Hamza Shiraz brutally KOed Edgar Berlanga to become the mandatory for Canelo Alvarez and in some ways the new sensation at 168 pounds in his debut.

But from that unique venue living up to expectations to the four action packed fights on the card and that decisive finish in the main event, I gotta tell you, Turkey's Ring 3 was a massive, massive success on Saturday from an entertainment standpoint. And Luke, outside of the. Circus side show with Turkey where we get a lot of cop and Reno Versace and all that other stuff going on. I have to ask you a serious question has this ring series. Yes, we had the weird Times Square card, but when you count you bank Ben one you count this big card that the promoting coming up with David Benavides and you count Saturday nights

with all the overflowing trash talk and the tough matchmaking has ring quietly become the best thing going on in professional boxing right now or am I crazy? Um it's still hit or miss quite literally but the hits have been really good hits you know as you mentioned. Matchmaking is great dude. Yeah. It's great. The U-Bank ban card or the main event certainly at a bare minimum was extraordinary. The Times Square was a dud. I mean there's really no getting around dude. It's great. The U-Bank Ben Carr, or the main event certainly at a bare minimum, was extraordinary. The Times Square was a dud. I mean, there's really no getting around that. That's part of the report card too.

It was a dud. But it wasn't the kind of dud that makes you think that like, oh, they couldn't get it right. And sure enough, they got this one pretty right. Now, I don't know how well it did at the box office. I think there's pretty much an open question about that in terms of what it did on pay per view as well. We'll have to see.

However, you know, did it deliver in terms of the fights themselves and there's really no question that it did it. It it may be even over delivered. It was fantastic and you know, we haven't got to it yet but Shakur Stevenson looked tremendous. Hamsa Shiraz looked very good. Edgar Belonga looked terrible. Like I said, he would. So, if he was in the fight till he wasn't, it was a tense battle for about three and a half rounds. It was back and forth. Yeah, um if he was in the fight till he wasn't, it was a tense battle for about three and a half rounds. It was back

and forth. Yeah, he lasted three and a half rounds before he got, you know, started to get brutalized BC. He's bad. He's not good and I know you don't wanna have this debate because you're like, I'll have the debate. I'll have the debate. You don't wanna have this because you like Big Red. We all like Big Red. We all like Canelo Alvarez but I've been saying for a wh off pretty significantly that in whatever terms yo

that he went 12 rounds. O oh, he went 12 rounds wi him. Okay, I can buy that to it afterwards. Well, h said he did it. That does did it. But okay, putting with Berlonga is borderline shameful. And here he is, Berlonga, fighting somebody

who wasn't gonna play any of those fuck fuck games with him and he got viciously, viciously stopped. People need, this is why, BC, this is why I'm gonna give Crawford the nod in my prediction. The people who note, well, Crawford's going up three weight classes, they're right. That's a big hurde power is going to be the You know, he's not really

who can do that. Fair. Th that you could point to t Canelo is going to win. B of the coin here is that quite literally at this p for years. I do not have confidence in him to beat A level fighters, whether or not Crawford is that at that weight class by the time they fight in September, I don't know,

but I'm banking that he will be. We'll have a lot of time to break that down. I understand how that connects. And I did dead wrong myself earlier. It's Jennifer Miranda who lost to Baumgartner, not Jennifer Marshall. Thank you, Long Island Luke. Let's go to the clowning that Berlengo is receiving here after Shiraz knocked him down three times, brutally

KO'd him. Here's Burlingo's biggest critic Oscar De La Hoya chiming in. Oh my god! Shiraz, congratulations! Pablaca, oh my god, you got knocked out! Oh my god, oh, something Canelo Alvarez couldn't do. Well, he's insufferable, Luke, but Berlenga definitely talked enough shit to deserve this, but here's my bigger question. You say he sucks, he didn't look good once it got hairy on Saturday, but is it fair to announce Shir fair to a danger to this division as the newest freshest thi

up on second rate competi be seeing Edgar at this l he definitely mopped up o However, um, I'm not, I'm Shiraz is like all of a s I know what like turkey's ready to say that Shiraz is like all of a sudden Oh, wow, and I know what like turkeys gonna do right? They're gonna try and make Shiraz Canelo. I I'm not convinced Canelo fights any one of Shiraz's level ever again. You know what I mean? I don't I'm not I just think these are Dude Shiraz is good though when he steps in there man. He can punch. He's long

Moriety Shiraz can punch man. I know he got audited against Adamus. It's true. But if you fight with him, you can get put out. There's no way. Adamus is tricky, and he was also on Twitter all that night talking about how much better he was. And so I, dude, Adamus is good. And Adamus is, and that was a tricky ass fight for him.

But you know, fully at 168, super middle weight. I thought he looked good in the weight class. He was long, he was tricky. He does have good power. The combination work, like he just kept throwing and throwing, you would see that Berlanga would be, you know, kind of holstering his weapons a little bit. So I gotta tell you, I thought that that was a very, very impressive showing. But again, beating Berlanga is one thing. Beating some like real, real good fighters is a very different one. All right, we will pause this conversation. We'll get to Chris Algeri in a second

as we look ahead to the weekend. But Luke, I gotta talk to you quickly about true classic. Because when it comes to the way I feel, the way I look changing the way I feel, that's what I feel about true classic, right? The mission goes beyond fit in fabric. It's about helping guys show up with confidence and purpose. And we've said it before on the show, and I'll say it again.

When I put on the True Classic tee or the form-fitting jeans, my wife notices something different. Have you been in the gym? No, I haven't. But I have been in the True Classic, Luke, and I know you can feel that same feeling. Yeah, no doubt about it. I mean, I can't give them a bigger endorsement than this. Long before they ever decided to sponsor the show,

I was wearing their clothes. What else do I need to say that when they came to us within a weather they like a hey, you know, they're interested in doing some ads on the show. I was like this is the easiest. Yes in the whole wide world. This is something I already use. This is something I already know is good and to BC's point. It makes you look good.

It makes you feel good premium products great fit and all the right places. My wife loves it. You can mix and match it during the summer, during the winter, whether you can dress it up, you can dress it down. Guys, this is what you need. True Classic is going to set you off. I bought it before they ever sponsored us here on MKBC. So here's what you can do. You can grab True Classic at, you can go to trueclassic.com slash combat, but you can get them at Target, Costco, a bunch of places. One more time for the folks listening on the audio platforms, trueclassic.com slash combat, combat with

a K. I promise you, you cannot go wrong with them. Yeah. Age gracefully, forget the overpriced designer brands. Ditch the disposable, fast fashion. True Classic, built for comfort, built to last, built to give back. Head on over to trueclassic.com slash combat with a K for more. True Classic. Oh yeah. Get on board. You're going to feel it. You're going to love it the way you look. BC's telling you that right here. All right. Let's get into topic number four as we look ahead to a loaded weekend in boxing.

We had to go to the bullpen and call one of our favorites in the game, the former world champion and the world-class boxing analyst himself, Chris Algeri, who once went the distance in a title fight against Manny Pacquiao. Chris will return to ringside this Saturday, of course, July 19th,

to co-host the PPV.com's exclusive viewer chat in real time live from Las Vegas during the PBC on Prime pay-per-view headline, of course, by Manny Pacquiao and Mario Barrios and throughout PPV.com's HD live stream of the fights. You can hear from Chris throughout. It begins 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific time. And of course, you can order the pay-per-view at PPV.com No subscription required. Let's bring him in. He's an avocado enthusiast and author a former kickboxing champion We love them live from Las Vegas. It's Chris Algeri

Co-host of Inside Boxing Live Chris great to have you here my friend But this is an early wake-up call for you on the West Coast. We appreciate that, bro. How's everyone? Yeah. Gentlemen, thank you so much for the intro. I love being here as well, so thanks for having me. Yeah, we got an early call time.

I'm out of here in Vegas, bright and early. I got my coffee. I got my workout in, but I'm ready to chat, Manny Pacquiao. Well, Chris, you are retired now, but of course you're keeping in tip-top shape. I'm the same age as Manny Pacquiao at 46, and my fitness is up and down, but let's talk first about what we're gonna see Saturday night in this main event as Pacquiao, four years,

four and a half years removed, excuse me, from the loss to your Dennis Oogos filling in for Errol Spence. And yes, we did see Manny a year ago, and then maybe an ill-advised exhibition bout at 160 pounds where he wasn't in great shape. But when he goes in there against WBC welterweight title holder Mario Barrios on Saturday, straight up, how realistic is it that he could compete or maybe that he could add his name to the likes of George Foreman, Bernard Hopkins, Archie Moore, these great all-time greats who have

kept it going in their 40s. Listen, if we were talking about anybody else besides Manny Pacquiao, I would say there's slim to no chance that he's even going to be competitive. But Manny Pacquiao is something special. He's something different. He's a one of one. There's never been a Manny Pacquiao. There never will be a Manny Pacquiao. You get that idea kind of nostalgically like, listen, if anybody can do it, Manny Pacquiao is that guy. How realistic do I really think it is? I don't really know. We have a lot of questions.

You mentioned that exhibition match versus a kickboxer that he did not too long ago. But I'm going to go out on the limb and say that he didn't train for that. He just showed up. He said he was at 160. He looked fleshy. We've never seen him look like that physically.

And from the reports that we see now the Workouts that we see from wild card gym with Freddie Roach. He looks to be an awesome condition even at 46 We were getting those old looks at him throwing million punches on the bags and doing pad work and doing the morning runs My nephew was actually out there sparred with Manny's son and did the runs with them said he looked like he was in really good shape So if there's a lot of questions, you know, we don't know who's gonna show up son and did the runs with them said he looked like he was in really good shape so There's a lot of questions. You know we don't know who's gonna show up We got to see how much of that Manny Pacquiao of old is left in the 46 year old Retired senator, but I don't know I'm still intrigued because it's Manny Pacquiao. I mean I'm with you It's like I think there's been times in the second half of Manny's career where the motivation, the training has dipped, right?

You know, I don't know if he came in world-class shape for that Jeff Horn fight, yet a couple years later he's beating Keith Thurman, handing him his first defeat and nearly becoming the fighter of the year at age 40 to become the oldest welterweight champion. You of course fought him when he was closer to his prime and you were certainly in yours. Just on the basis of facing someone like Pacquiao, why is it potentially possible that he's the one of one alien? What does he do that might be able to still be there at 46? Yeah, and I shared the room with Manny Pacquiao

11 years ago, and it was a little bit after he was starched by Juan Manuel Larketz, you know, that scary face down knockout. And Manny made an adjustment after that fight. he was starched by one of them Larkheads, you know that that that scary face down knockout and Manny made an adjustment after that fight He was less of that forward at full at full on attack shot out of a cannon type Offensive machine that we saw in the lighter weights after that fight. He boxed more we saw more of his IQ That was something that I really recognized when I was in the ring with him I mean his ability to make adjustments on the fly was super impressive and I say to this day I fought a lot of great champions. He's the best

I ever fought. He's the best I've ever shared the ring with. His ability to his awareness in the ring you know obviously the guys got 60-70 fights you're going to be aware but his awareness was next level. I couldn't believe how how how willing and able he was to be able to see when I count his rhythm and then he'd be able to adjust and change it on the fly. And I always say when it comes to being a world champion, you got to be able to adjust. And Manny Pacquiao is a guy who adjusted better than anyone I've ever been in the ring with. And that's what gives me a little bit of hope. Like, listen, this guy could still probably do this because he's adjusted as his career has changed. Guys who stay in the game long have to. You look at Bernard Hopkins, the same guy that was fighting in his 40s was not

the same guy that was fighting in his early 30s or his late 20s. He got a lot of knockouts back then, he threw way more punches back then. But as he aged, you saw the boxing IQ, you saw more fainting, more footwork, more adjustments, more control, more ring generalship. And those are things that I think Manny Pacquiao actually does have in his toolbox that he can break out come Saturday night. Maybe you answered this question already, but I guess I ask it this way, which is non-heavyweight edition because like big, big George Foreman wouldn't really count. But for other fighters, post 40 who won world titles, are there common denominators you can point to to say they all kind

of had X or Y and that explains why they were able to win. Yeah, and it comes down to ring control and being able to, you know, I'm going to use a quote from my buddy and podcast partner and commentator partner, Paulie Malanagi, he goes, those guys are better at old manning it. Learning how to win parts of the rounds without having to work is hard because listen, 46 is 46. The post 40 body is a different machine than that early 30s, late 20s prime physique. So being able to quote unquote, old man in a bit, be able to control the space in the ring, not have to work so hard all the time, those are the guys that generally are able to excel even in later age. We saw the Keith Thurman fight. I'll tell you right now that that was not many of old. He had to be smart in there. There are times he didn't have that in and out.

He had to stand and fight with Keith more than you probably would have thought he would. He took a lot of punches in that fight. But the power is the last thing to go. He still has that power, which is another common denominator of guys who fight on late. But I don't know man Manny a lot of his fight on late. But I don't know, man, Manny, a lot of his fight, a lot of his style was based on pace and volume. That's a really hard thing to do when you're in your late 40s. For our audience who maybe have seen Mario Barrios but don't have a clear picture in their mind

of exactly how he boxes, what is Manny Pacquiao up against in terms of the things Barrios does as a threat but also opportunity. I mean, first old. I mean, he's in the f life. Um, he's a solid guy a lot of weight classes, his power. He scores a lo

I welto it. Even if he do he's able to catch guys. puncher. He's long, he's he's the tallest person t fought. I believe he's 5'11", 6''. So he's taller than me. He's a little taller than Antonio Margarito. But he's got a good jab.

He's got a really good left hook, especially to the body. Sharp, good fundamentals. He likes to scrap. He likes to be in there. Fights heavy over that front foot. So he's going to be there to engage. He likes contact. He's a true Mexican warrior.

Listen, if I was picking this fight from Manny 10 years ago, I think Mario Baris is tailor made. He fights heavy over that front foot. He doesn't vary that jab so much. And right in front of you engages a lot. Um, he's there to be hit with the straight left hands. We've seen that in other fights in the past. Um, but we're not talking about prime Manny Pacquiao.

We're talking about 46 year old Manny Pacquiao. So I do think we're going to have a lot of engagement, but you know, is it going to be the young man or is it going to be the experience? That's really the question. Is there a way to say how the height and reach differential might impact this contest? So Manny generally was really good at fighting taller fighters. He liked fighting taller fighters. Me, Antonio Margarito, Oscar De la Hoya did very well against those guys

Even guys that didn't fight so much of their front foot Margarito very heavy other front foot me not not so much I was a boxer but he was still every to to close the gap very well And the thing about Manny the reason that he's good with these taller guys is because his first step his Explosive first step is the fastest I've ever experienced his ability to close the gap close the distance Throw that straight left hand with no fat on that thing right down the middle is to split that guard of especially of an orthodox fighter That's really gonna be what I'm looking for in round one If Manny still has that first step if he can still fire one of those Left straights right down the middle and split the guard of Mario Barros in round one

We got ourselves a fight. But if we see him falling off balance, getting square, having slower feet, it's going to be a really long night for many Pacquiao fans. Chris, you'll be in the arena, of course, handling the PPV.com live chat. We've seen great performances in that in the past from the likes of Jim Lampley, your colleague, Dan Canobio, and so many others there. When you are in that arena the past from the likes of Jim Lampley, your colleague Dan Canobio and so many others there. When you are in that arena at the MGM Grand on Saturday, and let's imagine a scenario that Pacquiao does this. You know, I mean, a stoppage win would be a lot more of an exclamation point, but even

if we're waiting after a close fight to hear those scores, when George Foreman did that wearing the same trunks that he wore in Zaire and his loss to Muhammad Ali, it met something different. What do you think this would mean for a fighter who's already in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, already is an eight division champion, no male fighter's ever done that, became literally a cultural household name doing karaoke on on the, you know, on the late night television. But what would this adding on top of it mean? And what would you imagine that moment's going to be like if it happens on Saturday? I mean, we're talking, this is historic, truly. And, and Luke, you, you, you alluded to it earlier, the sub heavyweight weight

divisions are a lot more difficult to win titles in advanced age, many packout coming back, especially coming off four and a half year layoff, it's not like he's been active. Even George Foreman, when he fought at Heavyweight, he was active, he was building his way towards fighting to the title and being ready and finding that timing and that rhythm so he could catch Michael Moore. Manny's coming off the couch, man.

Like literally, he's just, I'm gonna take this 12 round championship fight against a young 30 year old champion. If he is able to pull this off, absolutely historic. I mean Manny's accolades are through the roof as is. This would be another feather in the cap for sure. But I think it's just gonna cement his legacy as being just one of those people who is just makes you think there's nothing this man can't do. He just keeps coming back.

He keeps making you wanna see him. He is a global star. He's one of the most famous people walking this earth to even to this day. I've been around those crowds all over the world actually. I've been in Malaysia. I've been in Macau, China and the crowds that come out for him and they still do. It's amazing. I mean it would be an absolutely historic event if he's able to make this this work. I fully agree with you. This loaded card on Saturday there in Las Vegas has a few other big time all action fights coming our way. We got to talk about that co-main event. We had Sebastian Fundora on this show last time out.

He'll be the champion this time as he welcomes back Tim Zou. But we all saw the first fight a year ago, the first fight in the PBC on Prime era in which Zou was lighting Fundora up until that elbow to the top of the head opened to cut and then we had a blood and guts war that even to the to the finish when we're waiting on the scores, we really didn't know who was gonna come out on top since then. Tim Zoo could not have had a worse, you know rest

of his year, although to his credit, he picked it up earlier this year at home and bounced back and knocked out Joey Spencer. How do you view the stocks of both coming in considering entering the first fight? We thought Zou was the next big thing in the division and Fundora was coming out a knockout and now they've switched places. What should we expect Saturday night? I was so high on Tim Zou going into that fight and like you said, everything you said afterwards

in terms of where he's at He's he's been on the slide. He's been inactive and even that Joey Spencer fight I don't think I did a whole lot for him in terms of momentum Fundora's way up way up since that since that win that bloody win He's really been you know getting in into fine shape and fine form I've interviewed him several times over the past year or so I'm seeing him mature even in the way that he's speaking during these interviews. He believes it.

He is the guy. He's like, I'm the guy to beat at 54. Everybody needs to come to see me. And it's not fake. It's not bravado. He does feel that way. And Tim Tzu, I think it's the opposite. I mean, taking that loss that night, okay, boom, I got cut with an elbow.

I was blood in my face. I couldn't fight my fight. As you said, I was winning that fight earlier. I can beat that guy every single time but then the Murtazali of destruction That can really damage a fighter's psyche So in terms of psychology these guys are in two completely different places But we've seen them what they look like when they fought up for the first time with 12 rounds of action Blood and guts. Um, it was a fun fight. I mean, it's, it's, he's frozen. He's, he's, are you still there? Chris?

Can you still hear us? Give him a minute. It'll sort, you know, that hotel wifi, it can really, uh, mess you up. Yep. I've done a few shows from there. Okay. Is that a Jackson chain he's wearing? Yeah. All right. Did you call did you call the Fundora Zufight? Uh I did not. That was the first fight in uh PBC Prime. Okay. Yes. Okay. Yes. Uh frozen Chris. Not sure if we can unfro on uh let it go. Let it go. I don't know if we can reverse Walt Disney here. on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on

on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on

on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on

on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on

on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on

on on on on on on on on on on on on and so many other places here, a fantastic analyst. Luke, I did want to get your thoughts real quick on Shakur Stevenson against William Zapata there over the 12 rounds on Saturday. Great fight. Defended his title, but most importantly, did everything that people say he doesn't do, stood in the trenches and fought. And with real skill. Man, especially some of those sequences up against the ropes

where he's shoulder rolling and it's going just by and then he's popping when he comes back and then getting right back out of the way. And you know what? This was interesting. Zepeda made him do it. And so I feel like this is one of those contexts where because he was pushed by an opponent, you got to see a higher level of skill and a little bit more offensive urgency from him too. It wasn't just a defensive showcase like he had to put it on Zapata as well. So it actually was

a little bit of both. It was a defensive showcase while having I thought the requisite offense. Although, although I thought Zapata had some good moments in that fight too. You know, he was competitive in ways that I did not expect. So I wasn't expecting much from Zepeda. I knew he was like widely well regarded, but I thought Shakur would just handle him. But no, you didn't get that at all. This is a great showing from both guys, but in particular, the way in which Shakur had to answer for the particular challenges made it like a really, really nice showcase. I mean, to go from your hometown is walking out on you against a Los Santos to this in Queens was a big upgrade.

Look, this is kind of what I've been saying, where is he his own worst enemy at times with PR or the way he handles himself in certain fights? Yes. But if you are a lead or sub elite fighter and you bring it to him, you're going to get the very best of Shakur. This version of Shakur is my favorite fighter to watch in the world, I'm telling you. And I know some of it was Zepeda's kind of the constant pressure. And I didn't think Zepeda would even do this well. So I'd give him that credit. But some of it was the decision Shakur made maybe because Zepeda isn't a big one punch knockout threat. But that decision to stand in there and show everybody what he has, dude, this was pound

for pound stuff. And now Luke, he had a nice call out afterwards. Can we show the video of Shakur talking about Tank Davis? Do we have that here? Who's next? I told y'all who I want to fight. I can't, I can't keep saying the same thing. I already told y'all who I want to fight on The best versus the best. That should be my next fight.

I told y'all I'm a dog. I'm top level, elite level fighter. So let's make boxing great again. Let's put the best fighters in the ring with each other. And let's see who will come out victorious. Yeah, good stuff right there. I want to see that fight. Let's see if Turkey gets involved. We do have Chris Algeri back. We fixed the Wi-Fi issues. So let's finish our fantastic high level chat with the former 140 pound world champion. Chris, thank you for staying with us right here. Let's keep it moving though. I got to ask you about this heavyweight tilt, the rematch on Saturday for the undisputed championship as Alexander Usyk welcomes Daniel Dubois a second time. Two years after their first meeting

in which Dubois gassed out, got stopped late. Yes, there was controversy over a body shot that dropped Usyk. Some people thought finished Usyk. Since then Dubois has evolved into an absolute terminator. Does that make this fight a lot different when you consider Usyk's two years older and he's gone 24 kind of hard ass rounds with one Tyson Fury. How do you see this matchup heading into this area?

You know BC on paper, yes. This makes this an entirely different fight. Dubois is a different machine now. He's really gotten over that hump that he needed. For him it was all psychological because we had so much hype around him because of his physicality, his punches, their ability. And you know, we saw him evolve and mature after that Usyk fight. And I keep remembering Usyk grabbing him after the fight and being like, hey, you're good. You're going to be back. Stick with it. You're a very good fighter, which might

come back to bite him. But if things go the other way this time. But there is another interesting aspect of that first fight. Now the fight was outdoors and the ring was wet and slick. So Usyk didn't have his stellar footwork that he normally has. As a fighter who's fought outside, I fought in slick conditions, especially a mover, it's going to change the way you throw punches, it's going to change the way that you change angles,

it's going to change the way your offense, your defense, everything. So there is that aspect too in that first fight. But in terms of when these guys meet again, I think Usyk is just a different animal, man. He is so special and he's already got that win over Dubois in which he really beat him quick. So he's got that psychological advantage.

I know Dubois is on a big upswing, but Usyk's a different thing and he's got that win over him already. I think it's going to look pretty similar to the first fight. I saw some training footage, you might have seen it as well, Chris, of Dubois getting ready for this and he's just going hard to the body over and over and over again. Let me ask you, obviously the official ruling is a low blow, there's some controversy over it. It looks like a low blow to me.

I would love to get your opinion on it. But more to the point is, I mean, obviously you can't just punch to the body. But to what extent is that a viable, if you were, if you were advising Dubois on a game plan, to what extent would body work feature? It would need to be an aspect for sure, but it wouldn't have to be the end all be all or the entire, our entire game plan. And I don't think it's actually a good idea. Um, if you, you know, think about usick and inferior, it's like, all right, people know that it was sick, can be weak to the body. We saw him go down in the amateurs and in the world series of boxing. Um, you

know, we saw that what happened when Dubois hit him, which was questionably a legal blow. I, I agree with you. I thought it was low But in terms of okay Why didn't Tyson just go to the body then because it's not that easy guys when you're on a world-class fight against a world-class fighter Especially someone with the boxing IQ of Alexander usik getting to that body is not easy and if that's the only thing you're looking for it's gonna leave your head open Which is the main reason why people don't go to the body against world-class fighters because you have to put your head to that line You're right in front of their fists You're your hands are away from home to reach down to the body in that way so i don't

think it's a great idea to make that the the only thing they're looking to do um because Dubois does have a deep bag the guy can punch with both hands he's a really dangerous puncher and it's not just body shots he can hurt you to the head as well um so i would know we saw training we don't know how much that really is the true game plan, but you gotta set those body shots up. You can't just wing them from the outside against a sharpshooter like Usyk. This is a bit of a left field question, but I would love to get your perspective since you fought him. I had not seen Errol Spence even on social media until recently, Ugas was sort of reminiscing about their fight from several years ago, but of course, you know, here comes Crawford.

He already fought Madri Movin. He's going to fight Canelo in September. Not super active, but since the time that they fought Spence or he thought he fought Spence, Spence has been nowhere to be found. And I know there's been some attempts to get him back in there and they've kind of all fizzled. What do you make? Do you think he'll ever come back? And if so, in what kind of state? It's a tough question. Um, you know, he's had a lot of tough fights, but he's had way tougher fights outside of the ring with car accidents Yeah, and he's had multiple and he's and some of them

I mean the the the one in Vegas was was for I think was Vegas right was horrific We got thrown from from the car I mean and then he had another one like within a year later that he actually said You know He was having some issues and didn't want to take a tune-up fight before the Crawford fight So those kinds of accidents and injuries, they stick with you, man. So I don't know how much is left of Errol Spence, especially at a world class level. He's been one of the most inactive guys, even when he was fighting.

He would have long layoffs due to injury, of course, but also, I mean, he also has the torn retina, which is how he wasn't able to make the Manny Pacquiao fight, how Uga Stepin was able to beat Manny. So there's a lot of questions in terms of the health of Errol Spence and he's not getting younger so I would I would be surprised if we saw him back at a world-class level. Wow what a shame. What a shame. Okay before you I appreciate your time here let me just ask this over the weekend you saw what Hamza Shiraz did to Edgar Berlanga I've not been a believer in Berlonga for quite some time. But it's something of a debate point

on this show. I wonder what you make of, A, what Berlonga showed, but also what Shiraz showed and what that means for his future at 68. I've been really high on Shiraz for a while. Going into that Adamas fight, I was all on Shiraz. I'm saying Shiraz is going to take over the Midway division. Obviously, we know how that fight went. I thought he lost. Um, but I think on Adamus is very underrated. I think he's a much better prider than people give him credit for. He fought a very good game plan that night. But then also we hear about Hamsa Shiraz having a hand injury in that night.

And obviously he's struggling to make the weight. I don't know how that guy ever made 160. He looked huge at 68 over the weekend. And, uh, I'm very impressed with him and he's a major player at 168 now his ability to completely Control and disarm Berlanga on Saturday night was very impressive. He fought at length, but he was also very physical He showed his physical strength. I believe it was the end of the first round I saw him push Berlanga off and I was like, whoa This is this is supposed to be your first time at 168 and now you're pushing the giant 68 pounder

because Berlanga is huge around the ring like a rag doll. And he did that all night long. Whenever he got close, he'd push him off and get right to his combinations. And even the shots that hurt Berlanga, he wasn't loading up. He was just letting them go in combination. And the impact was there. I really am sure now, or I believe now that 168 was really hurting him

and taking away from his performance and now 168 he's a major player. Chris, I wanted to close with this because we're all of course getting pretty excited for Canelo versus Crawford in September, Allegiant Stadium, Netflix, Dana Wyatt involvement, it's getting wild here, but the fight is what matters most, not the pageantry. I swear every other day I wake up and I'm like, oh, Crawford's definitely going to win. Oh, wait, what am I talking about? There's the size difference. Luke believes there's this connection here and I don't think it's crazy. Burlango gets blown away by Shiraz. Maybe it proves that Canelo lately is just carrying B-level dudes and not fighting the A A ones of late. Are we overlooking the idea that maybe Canelo has aged not as gracefully as we thought and it's not just Bud's all time talent that could make this a truly

competitive, maybe even a historic matchup? Yeah, and BC, I'm with you, dude. I wake up some days and I'm like, I think Crawford's gonna do it. And then other days I'm like, size is a thing. We have weight classes for a reason. Canelo's still Canelo. Not to mention, Bud's actually older than Canelo. Granted, he's probably a lot fresher.

He is still 37, 38 years old. But yeah, I mean, it's hard not to make those comparisons when you look at Berlanga getting completely out physical to knocked out the way he was by Hamza Shiraz coming up and wait to think like hey Maybe maybe Canelo really doesn't have all that much left, but I think part of it is the age But also he's still dropping all these guys. It's not like Canelo like just lost his power lost his explosiveness He's just not finishing guys like it used to like what he was when he was fighting BJ Saunders and Yiel Durham and Caleb Plant where he had that in that intensity where he stayed on you. Um he doesn't really

have that anymore. He doesn't have that extra gear or that motor but he's still Canelo Alvarez. He's still explosive. He's still fast. He still has good defense and head movement. Um he's still gonna be the much bigger man on fight night but uh I don't know. Yeah, I'm with you though. As we get closer, I'm I'm I'm flip flopping. I mean, I tend to flip flop on fights anyway, but this one more so than usual.

Good stuff. Chris, we appreciate you joining us, man. Always fantastic top-level analysis from you, and the fans can check you out this Saturday during Pacquiao versus Berrios PPV.com's exclusive viewer chat and the HD livestream beginning 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific. And of course, you can order that PBC pay-per-view at PPV.com right now. No subscription required. Chris, enjoy the fights on Saturday man and by the way loving your analysis on multiple networks. We gotta say. Thank you so much guys really appreciate coming. I love your show by the way. Listen to it all the time and yeah man we're Vegas man. Fight week. It's a I'm gonna have a lot of fun. I'm already having fun. Get those

avocados out there. Chris great stuff. Chris fights ahead this weekend from Craig Jones. If I may the pink Cadillac that he Yes, he tells me it's in died. So, it died. he's going to be about 10 to

15 minutes late. Like, so, let's say 1240, 1245. Perfect. All good on that one, Luke. Uh to close out our topic four, we talked about Shakur's breakthrough win. I gotta ask you two quick questions. One, I know there's a lot going on

with Tank regarding the Roach rematch which may or may not happen in August not to mention his recent arrest, of which he was just released recently. You think Turkey can step in and make this fight? We did see Louis de Cubis Jr. of PBC ringside next to Turkey. We are going to see David Benavides on a Riyadh Sizzling card this fall. Obviously, Tank versus Shakur is arguably the fight to make, you know, below middle weight, maybe even in all the sport. Are we on the road to seeing this in your eyes?

You would think in theory, Turkey, there's no fight. Turkey couldn't make, Turkey can't make any fight, but there's no fight that is certainly beyond the concerns of purse right so that's not a limiting factor with him and he obviously has you know he's arguably the most important guy in the world of boxing at this stage right where his connections are second to none like in that sense do I think Turkey can make a very very competitive offer and really lean on these guys to do something.

Of course I do. Of course I do. But dude, Tank seems very unpredictable. And I really thought that after he went to jail, he got some of this shit out of his system. No, turns out he didn't. Turns out, I mean, again, these are accusations, innocent till proven guilty, but they're the same things he's been in trouble for in the past.

Like this is not new. This is in fact a repeat of the past in many ways to say nothing of the odiousness of the alleged crimes themselves. Add on top of that BC during the lead up to Roach, he seemed like halfway in, halfway out. He kind of had a so-so performance against Roach. Now Roach fought very, very well, right? It's not one or the other.

You know, I just don't know what kind of headspace he's in. Does he even want to fight Shakur? Does he even want to fight Roach Roach fought very, very well, right? It's not one or the other. Um, you know, I just don't know what kind of headspace he's in. Does he even want to fight your core? Does he even want to fight Roach? Does he even want to fight at all BC? I don't know how to answer that. I don't know how you would even answer that. So it's not to me a question of like, would Turkey make a no bullshit offer to get this done?

I think you would, but who the hell knows what tank Davis is going to do. That's kind of where I'm stuck at. Yeah. I'm with you on that one. And to close on this card, we saw all action and really disputed decisions, both in the David Morrell Jr. fight against Imam Kattayev, who over exceeded expectation

and in some ways calling into question Morrell's performance. And then we of course had Alberto Pollo losing the title at 140 to former champion Subaru Matias. Dis disputed decision, really fun action fight. Do you believe we mentioned the great matchmaking on these ring cards? Did Turkey's Tom and Jerry thing really work across the board? No, no, I think that they just did good matchmaking and there were guys that had, you know, again, I do think it's worth pointing out.

If you had taken the exact same card with the exact same guys on the exact same day, but you didn't put it in Times Square, would you have potentially gotten better fights out of those people? There's a case to be made, it could have been better than that, just by taking it and putting it in a more traditional kind of boxing setting and that the weirdness of it all contributed to somehow the fights fell flat. Um, I lost my train of thought from there. B C I apologize. All right. All right. I was wondering if that, yeah, we were going about whether he actually

encouraged people to stand in the majority of the ring. Oh, that's a good Jerry thing. So I just think that like the crowd, however big it was in the Queens, was raucous. And the matchups were good. You know what I mean? Like Shiraz had a lot to prove. So did Berlonga. Shaker had a lot to prove. So did Zepeda. And on down the list, like it was just really well put together. Now you would have thought the same with the sa Haney, but there were so their lawsuit and the dr like the craziness of the been living and the damag You didn't have some of t

here. You more had things for upside here and then So I mean there's no quest turkey deliver quality bo really a question. He can't. Every time? I don't know. You know. I mean, you can also say, is, you know, three pay per views in boxing in eight days involving different promoters, a good thing. I don't know. But I have to say we call out Turkey when things are weird or we don't agree. You got to, you got to praise him. Saturday was awesome. And if that's the future of the ring series, I am all in. Let's go to topic number five quickly as Craig Jones still on the way and that's the three

UFC 318 storylines will be there two days from now, Wednesday July 16th in Manhattan with Jed Meshue, Cuervo presents UFC 318 pregame preview. You know that's coming. But look before we get there, let's talk about the overarching highest storyline on this card. What is the biggest question in your eyes that needs answering in Saturday's trilogy bout for the B M F title between a retiring Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway in New Orleans? I'm not sure how to describe it simply, but let me tell you what I have my eye on. Max said something ahead of this, which makes total sense. Not this part was not surprising where he's like he doesn't want to go 0 and 6 in trilogies.

Three losses to Volk, two to Poirier, if he loses this one he'd be six. Now even with a win he'd be one and five, that's not great, but he would at least be able to rescue himself to a degree and I think there's reasons that he might. But then something else happened along the way, you see like that part was very ordinary. But in subsequent interviews more recently, people have asked him about Ilya Toporya, and he was very, very dismissive of him in a number of different ways. Like saying, well, he got Charles off a one-fight win streak, and he got Volkov off of the Islam KO. And it's like, yeah, but Max, he KO'd you too you know like and that was yes that was one of his tougher fights of the three in fact of the three was his toughest um but the

result was the same in the end and to me it was very uncharacteristic of Max to not give Ilya some props and I'm just wondering between the pressure BC of going 0 and 6 and the I would say somewhat unusual abrasiveness towards his opponent is he really feeling it this time? You know what I mean? Is he really and he's coming off of a KO a bad his only KO loss. He's coming off of one as well. I can't tell if he's got nerves or if he's angry. Because BC we know the truth. You can have some of those things and it can propel you to greatness but you can also have those things and it can really drag you down. Now all eyes are going to be on Dustin in the sense that it's his retirement fight and you know how's he going to perform in

his last one and blah blah blah but to me I've got a little bit more of an eye on Max at this point because he's trying to find new life at 55. And between the circumstances and what I might say about him long term in conjunction with the dismissiveness over, you know, that was a real good win for Ilya. I'm getting some strange vibes from him. I don't know if you share that opinion. Yeah, I don't know if it's just him trying to talk up the potential of a toporia rematch. Cause he said when people asked him in interviews, if he beats Dustin, like

what, you know, he said he's never going back down to featherweight, even though the UFC keeps him ranked at number one. And he was talking about, look, he's trying to build up a rematch. So if some of that is to convince himself and maybe to build the narrative that supports that, I understand that. But I think you're right to bring up his mental state and where he's at because this has been so over. It's been so this whole event has been about poor years retirement about the shape he's in about that. He told everybody including Mike bone that even if they offer him to pour, he's not coming back. This is it. He's going to leave it all

in the cage. He's going to leave it all in the cage. He's going to. He's had like the best training camp from a fitness level and so long. It is interesting to see. Well, what about Max who does come in on our on our current

DraftKings odds as the minus 125 favorite despite losing the first two to the plus 105 Pori and oh, by the way, the streak that Pori is on needs. Can we throw to that that meme or that look at the last eight opponents for pori? A dude is that fucking insane or Ben was Saint Denis, Justin Gaethje, Michael Chandler, Olivera, Connor twice, Dan Hooker and an absolute war and the title fight lost to Habib.

Dude, that is the definition of all killer, no filler right there. Holy crap. It's unbelievable. And then the fact that he's still this viable is, dude, that would ruin somebody else, our lesser man that would ruin and look at him still out here driving. It's insane. We're going to get into that a lot more with Jed Meshew this Wednesday live from New York.

It is pregame preview brought to you by Quervo. Check it out. But Luke, you already know that this podcast is sponsored by Total Wireless, the official wireless partner of UFC. And when you're streaming the fight or sharing those takedown highlights, you need a wireless provider

that gets you close to the action. With Total Wireless, you're covered by the Verizon 5G network. So you don't have to worry about your connection being knocked out in the biggest moments. And it's not something that you can normally say, hey, my wireless provider has got my back. But that's the thing, total wireless is in your corner

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That's why the price is guaranteed for five years, taxes and fees included. Ain't that right LT? That's exactly right guys. Listen, you know how it works. The best fighters don't make it to the octagon alone. They have all in support along the way and it shouldn't be any different for you. So visit TotalWireless.com

or visit your local Total Wireless store to learn more about how Total Wireless can be in your corner. 5G access requires a 5G capable device and a 5G service area. Monthly rate on the Total Base 5G access requires a 5G capable device and a 5G service area. Monthly rate on the total base 5G unlimited plan for new subscribers applies only to the monthly rate for your plan. Additional terms apply. See website for details. Well, Luke, we have Craig Jones still to come literally in your office in Washington, DC.

Before then, do you want to hit a couple DMs from dogs and get the people? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. All right. We put out the call on Sunday nights. Here's your questions we got answered. It's, ho ho ho, DMs from Dawks. Gusting. Our first one comes from Taekwondo Dude Memes and he says, is Katie Taylor the female Canelo a super talented boxer, but you have to realize every close round will go their way. Yes and no, right?

Yeah, I sort of get the comparison. I don't think it's crazy, but dude, I don't think this last one do Katie Taylor out boxed her in this third one. Whatever you want to say about the first two ones fine. I did not I had it 9793 on my scorecard to I thought 9595 was generous to Amanda. I'm with you. I think that the thing when you examine Canelo's career that even though I scored a few fights against him, Trout, Lara, Triple G, 1 and 2, I scored the Jacobs fight a draw.

The thing is he's so efficient he lands the key counter shots against your spamming jab and activity. There's a reason why that guy wins close rounds. Watching back the first two Serrano fights with Taylor, you sort of realize there's a reason why she does the same. Our second question from Elvis Flexley, who in the UFC light heavyweight division should move up to heavyweight?

Luke, how about Yuri Prohatskaya? Forget the middleweight move. Be the quick explosive, unconventional heavyweight. Luke, how about Yuri Prochazka? Forget the middleweight move. Be the quick, explosive, unconventional heavyweight attacker. Who would know what heavyweight division Prochazka, I think could could wreck people up there. I fully agree. I think he'd wreck people. Plus, he's got a good chance. Or like you could imagine that he could, you know, tolerate some of the power as well. Um. Um dude but you the problem with Poetton is like, could he win at heavyweight? Yeah, I mean, of course he could, right? But like, everyone wants to see the Tom Aspinall fight.

I just feel like Aspinall would blast double him into the fence. What about someone who's kind of in no man's land, Alexander Rakic, just kind of, cause he's lost to the top guy. He's just a big, big 205er. He could, yeah, I think that'd be interesting. He's definitely more athletic than most of the heavyweights too. the the middle way besides marab like non marab edition. I mean, even as a wrestler is kind of BMF ish too. Look what he did with Gilbert burns, right? Yeah.

Um, at 45, who would you go back to? You could maybe say, yeah. Year or take as a BMFer. Yeah. BMFer for sure. Um, who John Silver, yep. John's still, but he's a little more of a slickster, but yeah, I get the point. Yep. the you know what I mean for 319 need a title for this fight. You don't. You're telling me that like I don't like I don't agree. I agree but tell that to the UFC. They don't like having main events without a title on it. So like having an extra belt in rotation that they can just throw out there when they need it is pretty

helpful. Like Samuel L. Lundgren asks a very honest question but I think we're at the point where especially since the title doesn't carry with each fighter they just sort of like reset it randomly. I think we're kind of fighter. They just sort of like reset it randomly I think we're kind of done. We had a good run with it. I don't know. I don't know luke I also don't love putting people in there who are also kind of in title contention I kind of feel like it should be only for The nate diaz guys guys. We love aging brawlers all of that, but let's go to one more question here from playstation shavi He says top fights to show newer fans pre UFC 100. Anything pride related.

I mean, that's very, very easy. Pride, but I always tell people the same thing. This is what I really tell people. Find some great fighter who had a great run and watch them. Yeah. Watch St. Pierre's run. Watch Matt Hughes's run. Watch BJ Penn's run. Nick Diaz. Exactly. Especially a guy like Nick Diaz. Although he did have some great wins after 2009, but but yes, especially a guy like Nick Diaz. Like just find their beginning because that's what I've

been doing in boxing. Like when we started doing MK catch up, I would just like pick a guy and then start finding all of the fights I could find on them on YouTube. And you just learn so much about about them this way if you didn't get to watch all that stuff live. That's my Strike Force too. Oh my god, they're so big. Pick Strike Force title fights. Jacare, Luke Rockhold, like any of these things. Just go back and look at WEC, Carlos Connix. Diego Sanchez's Prime Run, right? I mean, you're going to get- Diego Sanchez's Prime Run. Forrest Griffin to an extent. Like all those guys, you can do that, you know? Yeah, to an extent like all those guys. You can do that. You know. Yeah, I'm with you on that. There's there's I

mean, do you have a like what's the best early early UFC fight is there one that stands out now define early early pre tough. I'm going to say like like before. Okay. How about I say this pre Zufa is there a go to best pre Zufa UFC fight it was legal at the time. Obviously, it's a different

time, different time. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. We also have a question here to close from sticks plays time with Dustin Porre's final fight coming up. What are your top five Dustin fights to show new fans how dominant and exciting a fighter

he was dude. Dan Hooker needs to be on this countdown. Dan Hooker is one Justin Gaethje number one. God. Yes. Um the the the second Max fight and then you you could even do the second Conor fight like any of those you could pick that those are those are great choices off the top of

your head right there. Do you don't do you not put in the number one? Yeah. I think I'm going to put in the number one because I think I'm going to put in the number one because I think I'm going to put in the number one because I think I'm going to put in the number one because I think I'm going to put in the number one because and then you could even do the second Conor fight like any of those you could pick. Those are those are great choices off the top of your head right there. Do you not put in the

Chandler fight that was really gnarly with bloodbath? I mean good you could do that one too. Yeah, I mean you could skip the Olivera and the Habib ones. Those ones didn't go so great but that guy gave the business to a Well, what do you want to do? I giving me tardiness. Alright. Alright. Uh we're gonna hold the shit, right? Until uh Wednesday? Well, what do you wanna do? I don't know how close he is. I know he's on the way. Um what do you wanna do? I got the **** locked and loaded if you wanna do it. So, alright, let's **** you. You down Luke? You know what? We're gonna need to anyway cuz I'm gonna have to get him set up when he gets here. So, why not? Let's just do it.

All right. I scoured the globe to find the most ridiculous videos that make Luke uncomfortable. This one's called B Sizzle's Feces. I have you seen the stars I have you seen the stars I have you seen the stars

All right. I mentioned that there was that one extra clip from the BKFC Summit press conference that'll move ya. Here's Christine Ferreira getting after it. You're a fucking ratchet, you fucking ratchet. Go suck more dicks. That's why you can't make weight. You got too much cum in your throat, bitch.

These women seem nice. That's the thing. BKFC doesn't know what they're doing. They play to a certain aesthetic in a crowd and they go all fricking in. Okay. And Connor's a dirt hole. Let's go to some street fight drop kicks. Luke, you remember this very famous clip of Larry Holmes jumping off of a car against

Trevor Burbank in the 80s? Yeah. Sometimes it even carries over into the parking lot. Dude, that's such a classic clip, including the quote of Burbank going, Larry Holm, he kicked me. He kicked me. Well, look, check out this street fight. The same thing happened. Oh, shit! Oh, man!

I couldn't get you a smaller video to see it on, but wow, jumping off the bed of a truck to drop kick somebody in a street fight, that's good stuff. That's just pure Americana right there. That's what it is. All right, Luke, it's time for you to pack for a big trip. We got video of you choosing your undercarriage

for the week. Okay, packing for a four day trip. Let's get our underwear. Day one, day two, day three, day four, poop my pants, poop my pants, poop my pants, poop my pants, and poop my pants. Okay, Craig be here. Okay. Long out. Look, you with me? Yeah, I'm with you here. All right. You wanna just, wanna close up shop here? We'll continue this on Wednesday?

Yeah, that works for me. All right, all right. But while we're waiting on the great Craig Jones to set up and intervene there, can we go back quickly to what we left behind on topic number four? Did you watch this card? Did you do a live thing on Saturday One Hour? I did, but I was doing the UFC,

so I wasn't watching the Ring 3 card. I had the Shaker fight up in the background. I really was not watching it close. Can we throw to the meme on Cop? Did you see this? Yeah, this is classic. Cop dressed like a retired police chief. Shout out to Mike Cobbinger on there on the ring card.

And I wanted to play one more to close up shop on Shiraz. Here is him talking about what he did learn about that Adamas fight that helped him make the changes against Prolonga. That's good stuff. First couple rounds I was losing them and I knew I was losing them, but I was adjusting and that was a massive learning experience I learned from my last fight against Saddam is so I think that's what makes a great fire or not great fire good fire Adapting from fights to fights and yeah, this was a good day for me. There's a knockout make the win even more sweeter

Yeah, it does. It does a lot of people were happy for me. A lot of people were happy for me But like I said respectable anger at the end of the day. I knew what I was up against. I knew this s*** talking that was going to be involved. I knew the type of character he was. So it was all about mentally staying very sane, staying very focused. And like I said, nothing was stopping me winning tonight. Honestly, nothing. You've got to give Shiraz a lot of credit for stepping up into that performance after kind of being audited there against Adamus. He looks like a major player. I don't know if he can have, you know, similar success against Canelo, but do I want to see it? Yeah, I do. And also, of course, when we're talking about Saturday's PBC main event, I'll of course be on the call there for that Pay-Per-View card.

On Prime Video Pay-Per-View, Manny Pacquiao, Mario Barrios. Right now, according to DraftKings, Pacquiao, a plus 285 underdog minus 390 is Barrios. But here's Pacquiao, 46 hit in the bag. Let's see what we got here. I the i mean you can't win a fight in a heavy bag but uh... it's gonna be very interesting to see what version of Pacquiao shows up and what he has and when referencing of course that heavyweight undisputed championship rematch on Saturday on his own pay-per-view of which Usyk is a minus

three forty betting favorite according to DraftKings against the plus 260 Dubois. Let's hear from Dubois and what promises he is making entering this rematch. My maths is still right. 21 of your victories have come with straight knockouts. Yeah. Fireworks. It's going to be bombs away on the night. Is it going to be a big punching fight? Is that how you see it? I'm going to be the one throwing the bombs and just coming through whatever I have to come through. I'm not going to be denied.

And just a word about your opponent. I mean, obviously you think you're going to win. He'll go in there thinking he's got every chance of winning. How do you see him as a fighter? I see him as a top guy, isn't it? He's got to be at one of the best in the world ranked, you know, globally. But now I think it's my time. I'm in the younger line here and I've got to prove that I'm a new force, a real force in the division and I'm going to take over. Of course, I'll have a lot more on this on Inside the Box with Rafe Bartholomew tomorrow.

That's Tuesday morning, 11 a.m. Eastern on the Brian Campbell Experience. But Dubois saying he's the And oh, by the way, I didn't even mention here about the merch, by the way. MorningCombat.shop is your entry to getting our newest July exclusive releases, from the Three Margaritas shirt to the technical thriller. Of course, you know about these average Joe Art designs that are from back in the day. You can check out our evergreen designs as well by going to MorningCombat.shop. And as Craig Jones is setting up for the sit down, we got to show that quick video of Dustin Poirier wearing another Average Joe Art exclusive that you can buy on Poirier's website right now, ahead of this final fight, the last dance with all of the heads that Poirier has taken out through his career. Shout out to the great Average Joe Art

for that one. Long Island Luke, where are we at in the Craig Jones setup process? So Luke was just seated next to him, but then Luke just got up. Now it looks like Luke is sitting back down. I don't wanna unmute him yet just in case he's not ready. Yeah, what did you make of one Long Islander, Chris Algeria on the show?

I wish we had had more time. I wanted to let you throw a question about local Huntington Action. I know, I wanted to ask him him like what's his bagel place? What's his pizza place? You know, but I was loving in the chat some people were like oh he sounds just like Long Island Luke. I always wonder how he pronounces Kolfi. You know what I mean? Probably just like me. I'm going to just assume Luke's ready for this. All, we're going to throw it over here. Luke will take you to the finish. Here's Luke Thomas and

the great Craig Jones. Alright, here we go. Hey, can you hear me? Can you see me? Yeah, we got you, dude. Where did the BC just leave? Yeah, he signed off essentially. What a cocksucker. Alright. What a callous. Uh hello everyone.

Luke Thomas here. You know this guy. This is Craig Jones. Uh how you doing, Craig? I'm going to turn my chair a little bit sideways here. I'm going to get a little close. You know what you want to widen. Do you want to do me a solid and just widen the uh the thing we I'm going to put Craig's camera people to work. The back one. Yeah. Yeah. She has a nice other way. There. Yeah. There we go. Very good. Thank you so much. That's

perfect. Craig. How are you? Good. Good. DC is **** **** good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good way there. Yeah, there we go. Very good. Thank you so much. That's perfect. Craig, how are you? Good, good. DC is fucking warm.

You can't do anything in the day. No, it is the mosquitoes, too. Don't eat your ass alive here. The bloody mozzies are brutal out here for sure. How has it been? It's been good. We started this road trip up in New York. We started up there and I was just cruising down and every city the car ends up in the shop. We make it out of there. We got the 89 Lincoln Town. I was hoping you were going to pull it up here and I was going to be able to take pictures of it.

But it's in the shop as we speak the power steering. I'm talking like I know anything about cars. Right. I don't know. I don't know. Fuck all either. Yeah. But probably every shop takes advantage of me. But actually, where were we? We were up in Atlantic City and one of the gyms there, they took care of us. So they fixed the car problems at that stage. These new ones have developed here. So I lost power steering here. So I was obviously driving this boat through D.C.

and I started not being able to turn leftF to call a sending to Zoolander. Well, welcome. Welcome to the nation's capital. Let's get to this. I have so many questions for you, but we have to start with the obvious one, which is the video you put out yesterday. Yep, yep.

So let's break this down. So for folks who haven't seen it, Craig Jones put out a video yesterday. It's on the B-Team YouTube channel, if memory serves. Yes, yeah. And in it, there's a few revelations. So let's go piece by piece. One of them is, this one was not surprising to me.

One of them is that B Team is basically going to be no more now. That is to say, you are leaving B Team and the remaining people, so that's, I don't know, Damien's last name. What's his last name? Not important. Not important.

Nicky Ryan, Nicky Rod, and some other, Ethan Krelnsen will be there as well. And they're gonna rebrand. I don't know when that rebrand will happen. uh uh uh Nikki Ryan uh uh Nikki Rod and some other Ethan will be there as well and they're going to rebrand. I don't know when that rebrand will happen. Great question. I would imagine so it's basically like the swan

song, right? So, New Wave and the brilliant political analyst Gordon Ryan have created Kingsway. So, the era of New Wave will end. So new waves final competition, I imagine will be our event. And it's kind of the same for B team. I mean, there's really no hard feelings. I'm like, kind of like the dad that went out for milk and never

came back. I kickstarted the gym. Now, I want to pass pass it on to them, you know, like, I mean, it's hard to have a gym with five, six owners, you know, this is like, it's kind of hard to make a profit that way. Really? You know, like a jujitsu gym, I reckon as a business, they function best. Uh, single owner, he's the coach. He has the students.

You can make good money doing that. But in terms of a bunch of professional athletes, it's very difficult, right? Like to have a gym that both focuses on the professional athlete side of things. And to be professional athlete, you kind of have to be selfish to run an academy for all people, beginners and everything. You kind of have to be a bit selfless, right? You have to look at the students. So that's the direction they want to take it in and me I'm never there.

So it's like full intensive purposes. Why, why keep it going as it is. We had a good run, so it's kind of like, it fits perfect. Really. But, but why rebrand though? the Unfortunately, B team is quite synonymous with me. B team, I mean, we'll keep it out there. Like we'll probably bust some merch out once in a while, if something good comes along. But for those boys, for what they're starting, it's gonna be kind of a different image. You know, family friendly,

they wanna incorporate mixed martial arts and striking cause Damien does MMA. They wanna go for that big gym type of feel. I keep asking them, I'm like, what's the new name gonna be? Cause they got their simple man podcast. I'm like, they want to go for As you can imagine, perfect grammar, perfect spelling, clear translation of the ideas you're trying to get across. What has been his line of attack? I didn't see this. I refuse to read it until he learns

how to use paragraphs, to be honest with you. I look for the cliff notes. Honestly, I don't even know what he means half the time, but I don't know why he's angry that I'm leaving his city. He's got his gym now, I'm leaving, take it. Does he see it as some, again, does he see it as some kind of like victory lap or something? Maybe, I mean, I just, it's funny.

It's like they had New Wave, now they have Kingsway. We had B-Team and then it'll probably be some sort of incarnation of Simple Man. It's kind of like, we're kind of doing the same thing. You know what I mean? Like, so I don't know what the beef is. I'm trying to put the beef aside. Me and John Danaher, we're kind of doing the same thing. You know what I mean? Like so I don't know I don't know the papers. I'm trying to put the beef aside me and John Dana her where homies again. We're friends again It's just Obviously Gordon still doesn't like I don't know why

There's nothing but complementary towards them. Yeah, you guys have been nothing but Fast friends this whole time my producer is telling me you're a little low on the microphone If you want to speak a little bit closer to it All right, but listen, I wanna talk more about this. So, do you know, when you guys decided to, okay, how did this decision come about? Did you go to them and say, guys, I'm out?

Were they like, we need to make a call here? What was the process? I would say it's just like kind of a logical decision, you know, like for the first 18 months to two years, I was slogging it out at BT and I was there twice a day, you know, like, uh, and then as I mean, even MMA coaching, I'm gone for six weeks and then sometimes you decide to go to Bali on vacation, you end up there for six months, you know, like, I'm just never around. So it was kind of coming to this point where we were just like, we're all collectively

thinking and that's just like me. I said, I'm never there. Why am I attached? Attached to this physical premises. But I will say, I mean, for the students of B team, like it's going to have a new name, but you still have your gym really day to day operations will continue the same guys teaching the classes, be teaching the classes. Nikki Rowan is going to kind of step up into that head coach role. Unfortunately, the body he has been given is failing him. I've seen the rehab though, it seems to be going. Yeah, he's doing it now. So I'm proud of him that now he's doing rehab.

For the longest time, he would not do the rehab. He'd do a little bit of rehab, the video games would call him. But now he's given up the video games and he's really taken on board the head coach role. And I think the gym, it requires a head coach, right? the the the the the

the the the the the the the the coaching is very good. Like I love having Mickey Ryan in my corner for matches. I hate to say I even enjoyed having Gordon in the corner. When it comes to Jiu Jitsu, he has fantastic opinions. I wouldn't ask him anything else. Mickey

Ryan coaching phenomenal. So I think like the gyms and say fans, people and say fans. You're not going to miss Austin, right? No, not a lot. You know, there are some good parts of Austin, but yeah, I mean, I don't love it too much. It's not, it's, I don't hate these places. I just enjoy being on the move, you know, when the UFC legal summons come my way, they won't know where to find me. When would they send you legal summons? By the way, they're just watching this. Those are two of the most hated people that they have.

I'm imagining actually before I went on ARIO. I didn't tell my lawyer and manager that I was going on there and I just posted like five minutes before we went on there. He was like, what have you plotted? He's like advising me. Obviously we have the bazooka today in the white said he did not suggest that. But again, for legal purposes, that could have been any board, man. They all look alike.

Yeah. But fair enough. There's some plausible deniability. All right. So the other portion, excuse me, of the announcement that was in the video yesterday, one was you're leaving the country as I understand, right? Are you just going to roam like you've been doing? Because every time I'm on Instagram, it's like, well, Craig is in Istanbul. Craig is in Ukraine. Craig is in wherever the fuck. Like is that the

plan? We're on an adventure, you know, where wherever I'm needed, most of the time I'm not needed there, but wherever I feel drawn to. And again, like we've got a couple of big fights coming up. I imagine folks will be fighting before the year ends. Della is going to take out a Macachev. So it's like, I have to put in the effort for those camps. So it's like, those do take a lot of time. You know what I mean?

Like again, for Volkanovsky Islam one, I spent a full six weeks with him. And I think I'm going to be targeting the same for Islam one. I spent a full six weeks with him and I think I'm going to be targeting the same for Jack Della even though I have to be in the cultural hub of Australia of Perth for six weeks but you know what? We'll pull it. We'll do it for Jack.

How is Perth? I've never been. Don't go. It's terrible. I mean, honestly, as a city, the beaches, the weather, incredible to people. Oh, what's the equivalent here? Oh, somewhere in West Virginia maybe. Oh, fuck, really? Just West Virginia with beaches? Yeah, it's the most isolated city in Australia

and that's for a reason. Right, fair enough. But then there was a last component to the announcement. If you want, I'm gonna slide over just a little bit and come this way just to get you more information. Yeah, there you go, that's better. Sorry about that. No, it's all right.

Listen, it's a narrow thing. We're working with the studio. Look at him, it's all right. It's, listen, it's a narrow thing. We're, you know, we're working with the studio. It's too big. I keep backing away from him. I know. I look like a different species next to you. It's really quite remarkable. But the other point, I will tell you,

it kind of broke my heart a little bit to see the last part of the announcement, which was like the match against Gable Stevenson, which of course will culminate CJI 2 later in August. After that, you're a dunzo. And then I saw on Reddit you say you were going to vanish. So what is happening with you after CJI? We'll talk about CJI in just a second,

but what's happening? Who knows? That's the mystery, you know? Maybe we disappear for a while and come back. Are you sick of it all? I mean, it is quite challenging. It is a lot of work, but I really don't give myself a chance to take a break.

So it's like a forced break. You know what I mean? I'm forcing myself to take a break. I'll plan to take a break after CJ one, but I got a bit too excited in Colombia. I didn't disappear from socials for a while. So yeah, so funny. I've been going to Colombia for almost 15 years. My wife is from from there. I love the clarification. Yeah. I'm not a passport, bro. He's there for the culture. And I was just going to say, I love the clarification there. Yeah. I'm not a passport bro. He's

there for the coaching. Well, it's I was just going to say I remember I saw you. so it's so funny. I went to Cartagena once and then you went like right. It's after the first CJI memory search. So, I was actually I was actually in

Cartagena. I think right around that time and then you went after me and then I saw some of the places you were hanging out. I could I could I could spot them all almost almost but then I saw you were downtown and you had armed security and I was like yeah we're having different experiences in Cartagena at this point. Yeah and honestly I probably needed it with what we're doing down there. We were drawing a lot of attention to ourselves. The armed security for what we were doing probably necessary just that level of throwing caution to the wind on the Colombian streets.

You know, it's so funny you bring this up because people always ask me, like, what are your recommendations for Columbia? But like I didn't, I didn't. Well, here's the truth. I didn't realize how. If you travel to Columbia with somebody from there and they kind of guide you and keep you off of that, like you can have a great experience, but it's very careful. I didn't realize how careful my in-laws were being and taking care of me there. And then I see these stories from other people who go and they're like, X happened to me, Y happened to me.

You got the Burundanga, didn't you? The Skopel, I mean, like the. Yeah, I did get drugged and I was not the one that drugged myself in that situation. Yeah, that's that's it's brutal. Honestly. That's like anesthetic. I couldn't remember anything. But that happened to my my my wife's uncle. They got him and they emptied out his ATM and they emptied out part of his apartment to shit. I always thought, you know what? A part of me because I wish the old bus stuck always just think it was a bit of a myth.

You know, it's not it's the husband that that goes, oh shit, I spent all the money last night. I must've been robbed. It must've been drugs, you know? But yeah, happens to the best of us. Also, I've never been to Medellin, but I heard that's like the epicenter of gringos getting their shit taken. That's for sure.

Yeah. There are some men aiming for women above their pay grade in those regions. And I think that cost them in the long run, but yeah, I mean, Madison, beautiful, like in terms of like city views and stuff, like we stayed in the Airbnb. I got, I was there for six weeks. I'm a star. I just stayed there till I got drugged and I was like, we better get out of here.

But yeah, medicine, beautiful city. I mean, if you're smart, you can avoid the trouble. Honestly, it's pretty, I think it's pretty obvious where that trouble lies, you know, but great time. Yeah, fair enough. Now getting back to this about what you were gonna do, are we only gonna see you when you corner like Volk or JDM or that's it?

I honestly don't know. I like, I'm just focused on CGI and then just having a forced break if I feel the need to come back. I'll come back, but yeah, that's it, basically. What are you gonna do with your life if you don't come back? I mean, I feel like that's the question most people ask every morning anyway, just pretend they have the answers.

Yeah, but those are, we're all on traditional paths. Yours is a little bit more unusual. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what we'll do afterwards, but I think actually we built the Guardian project and we're just finishing building a school in Peru. So probably lay low on Peru. And you got to be careful there. Insecurity is real. That's true. Yeah. Peru. I mean, it's a dangerous place to dangerous of having a good time.

But yeah, I want to see like we put a lot of money from CGI one and the planned profits of CGI to into building a school in the Northwest of Peru. So we build this school for the kids over that Guardian project. Incredible project. They have schools all around the world. We just visit the one in Baltimore. But yeah, they do a lot for teaching underprivileged kids. You did to him. We just like build a facility for him because the school

improves of reach capacity, so do a lot of fun programs like if the kids train, they get they get meals, they get English lessons and stuff like that. And then obviously you get the benefits of jujitsu itself, discipline, self-reliance. Is this your first time in Baltimore? First time in Baltimore. Yeah. I thought I was ex-backers. I watched the wire, but I don't know. I feel like I stood out in the car down there, but it got a lot of respect from all people.

I would imagine that that car was popular in Baltimore city limits. I haven't been pulled over yet. I think yeah I think obviously they see the car the cops and they see he's driving anything but it's a bit of profiling man. All right I will tell you my first thought when I saw the video yesterday first of all it was very well produced but that aside. I actually actually edited myself. Shut the fuck up, do you? Yeah. You do? No. Oh, okay. I was gonna say, what really stood out to me about it was,

how worried should I be about the future of Jiu Jitsu? Here's what I mean. Not so much its popularity as such, but you're the only guy I can see vocally making a case But you're the only guy I can see vocally making a case for basic labor rights slash financial literacy. And if you take a break, I don't know who else does that in the space. And for that reason, what happens in your absence?

Like, I mean, I realize it's not all on you. I'm just saying you would leave a vacuum in place that I don't think would be easily filled. Yeah, I mean, that's I mean, that's the mission with CJ I was really to like, help the athletes out, you know, give back like I think like, I've been blessed by people being very forgiving of my human just for being Australian. So I've been able to get away with a lot on social media.

I feel like a lot of the times people see what I post and they just see the good in it. You know what I mean? They ignore a lot of the dark undertones of those posts, but that's helped me build a profile in the sport. That's helped me be able to make money for myself. So I know the challenges athletes have of like trying to make money for themselves

and really not to be used by promoters out there. So I really wanted to provide them an alternative and I think I set the grounds for it. I mean, there's still a pretty damn good chance we'll do CGI 3 unless we eat a massive loss on CGI 2. I was gonna say, it sounds like there's not a guarantee at all that there will be a CGI 3. There could be, but it's not.

Yeah, I wouldn't say there's any guarantees. Like, I mean, honestly, it's not, obviously it's not my Yeah. I wouldn't say there's any guarantees. Like, I mean, honestly, it's not obviously some of my money. I wish it was my money. I do wish it was my money, but I've never won a million dollars in Jiu Jitsu, but the investments there for CGI three, but obviously the measure of success for me is how interested people are in the event, how engaged they are, how many people show up to the event. So for my, it's my friend's money. So I don't want to just waste his money. He has a lot of money to waste, but at the same time, like, uh, if the interest isn't there, it is what it is. You know, we gave it a good crack. I think we elevated the sport with CGI one,

CGI two, using the quintet style teams format. I think people are just going to be amazed at how exciting grappling can be. No doubt. If there is no CGI three UFC will still see Jai to this format. I'm pretty wrong with that. And if you're but um, they should they owe me some consulting fees. Honestly, I hear they pay well, but see Jai three. I'll come back. I mean, if this one needs me, I'll come back.

But I think the sports doing okay. We'll let it ride. All right. Um, I don come back. I mean, if the sport needs me, I'll come back. But I think the sports are okay. We'll let it ride. All right. I don't know. Do you, what level of concern do you have that the UFC will be able to monopolize sports just so? I mean, the problem is, is that like, like what you said about explain, like labor rights.

So it's like the best YouTube comment I've read on my series so far is it's like, Craig is slowly going insane explaining labor rights to cavemen. And that's the most accurate. The financial literacy among the athletes in this business is not high. It's not high. And you know what, even the people in the sport

that are the top that you think are intelligent, obviously, we're not talking about the best of the best here. But there are elite level athletes, one of them in particular, who was signed to not UFC, but he was signed to an organization previous that generally have some pretty strict contracts. I remember I was trying to get him to do CJI at one. And I said, well, what does your contract say? And this is a guy that studied law. I believe his sister's a lawyer and he's like, I didn't read the contract.

I just signed up. Jesus. Fuck. So like when, when some of the elite level guys, even the guys at the top of the sport don't read contracts, I think that's almost unsalvageable. Jesus. I'm not sure what to say about that. Can I tell you I have a fear about it? Let me give you a theory. See what you think about this. Yeah, I'm ready. All right. So I don't know if you saw this. I mean, there's other there are other factors I could point to that would buttress this, but certainly

the UFC is going to sign... Let's talk about the MMA side. So on the UFC side of MMA, I mean, I say UFC, I mean TKO, but on the UFC side, they're about to sign a new television deal. And certainly for the life of that deal, it's going to be extremely lucrative, potentially up to a billion dollars a year, right? So like they're fine in that sense. But there's a lot of broader data that indicates MMA is in decline.

And one of the things that came out interestingly was there was some data from Tapology. I'm sure you've used the website before. The amount of global MMA events is steadily declining year over year, including in USA, Brazil, and Russia, the top three markets. Now there are some differences there. Japan's on the up, Europe's certainly on the up. I'm not sure where Australia fits into the conversation, but it's not a great sign. Of course, if anybody who works in this business knows that the numbers are down more broadly,

but then you look at what they're doing in boxing, they're trying to get the portion of the Ali Act amended so that they can get their own titles put in, which is currently literally fucking illegal. They want to just rip out portions of federal legislation. And now they're getting into BJJ. It looks to me like they kind of see where MMA is headed, that they will be able to control it and be lucrative, but the pie will shrink. Why not just expand the reach?

They already have WWE. They already have UFC. If they can take over with Saudi money boxing, great. And then of course, BJJ is, you would think relative to those things, there already have UFC. If they can take over with Saudi money boxing, great. And then of course BJJ is, you would think relative to those things there for the taking and this would consolidate their position relative to declines in MMA. What do you make of this idea of mine? Well, I don't think the US has been in a better position to fight against corruption and monopolies than it has right now today.

Yeah. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. I think, yeah, I mean, that's the thing, right? It's like, I think they can do it, and there would be no consequences to it. So it's like, it's quite an uphill battle in that sense, you know, like, I don't think the monopoly laws are going to be implemented. You know what I mean? I don't think there's going to be any pushback at all. Obviously that was a big settlement case recently,

but I think that took like 10 years. It did take 10 years, yes. Although there's new ones. I don't know if you're aware of that. Yeah, I did speak to that lawyer. That lawyer did reach out to me. Oh, he did? Yeah, yeah.

So I spoke to him briefly, nothing serious, but yeah, I spoke to him. Eric? Eric, yeah, the main guy, the main guy. I forget, I forget. Well, there's two different. Well, OK. Yeah. The three hundred and thirty million dollar settlement. Yeah. Three hundred seventy five. They bumped it up a little bit. Yeah.

Yes. I mean, I spoke to him. Yeah. I mean, obviously, like I have quite a negative view on the direction of sort of corruption overall, I think, in the country generally. So it's like we would be fighting an uphill battle. But I think in terms of like what you're saying about declining viewership across the board in MMA, I just think it's less interesting now. Like what I really appreciated about Japanese MMA was the show, the show they put on. Even recently, when we watched the

Boxing fire where the dad sorry the dad's for and then their sons for and like the production level of that in Britain Oh, you banked them. Yeah, absolutely. It was insane I was so much effort even like what the UFC did when they had the event at the sphere like I think all those little things Really help get people excited like it's you're actually seeing something incredible, but like the problem is they've got such a, a good formula for profit that there's really not a lot of creative effort put into the production side of things or really even the storytelling. Like, I mean, even like to be honest, the countdown shows kind of pretty boring, pretty cookie cutter. You know, like I remember back in the day, like when BJ Pem fought GSP and the rematch, like those preview shows, even I think that was called primetime, the prime time.

Yeah. Like the production level on those. They took chances. It was there was a lot of creative energy put in. They felt like they cared a lot about it. I feel like when that starts to diminish at the top, it's going to translate to interest in the sport. Right. I have a theory. My sister and my brother used to they don't not anymore. to diminish at the top, it's gonna translate the interest in the sport, right? I have a theory, my sister and my brother used to, they don't, not anymore, they closed it up,

but they used to own a restaurant. And I remember I came back from Spain one time. You've been to Spain? Yep, yep. Yeah, I love Spain. And I remember you'd go into these restaurants and they would be like the size of this room. And you'd be like, but the food would be just fire

everywhere you went. And they explained to me, like, it's not a coincidence, but that, that like the more food you have to prep each day and deliver each day, the harder it becomes to do, which is why banquet food is like, it's not bad, but it's, it's assembly line. It's formulaic. It just feels a little bit like MMA. It's kind of like banquet food right now. Yeah.

I would agree. I think, I mean, like, obviously, if you get offered lucrative contracts and you have to deliver a certain amount of shows, then you're going to have to split those interesting fights up over the course of the show. Obviously, depending on the athlete, they're going to be able to fight more and get paid potentially more for more fights.

But I do miss the days when it was like one pay per view a month. Everyone was going crazy hyped. The whole thing was stacked, you know, but I mean, maybe that's me just reminiscing, but I do agree with what you're saying here. And that's I mean, that's why I only want to do CGI once a year. Like it's like one Super Bowl event per year that wouldn't interfere with any other events. Right.

It's a chance for the athletes to make money. It's not behind a paywall. It shouldn't conflict with other organizations. If their athletes do well, that's going to make their athlete more valuable to them. But on the counter to that, the athlete could get hurt. Their athlete could win that million dollars and be like, hey, bump the paycheck up. You know what I mean? So like CGI by providing leverage to the individual athletes is really, I think, a scary thing for anyone that would try to control an industry. Let's talk about the tour you're on.

So obviously you started in New York. Yep. Did you go to Philly at all? On the outskirts of Philly, where do we go? We went New York to Atlantic City. That's the land that time forgot. Holy shit. We're trying to go like Hunter S. Thompson sort of vibes here on the campaign trail, right?

So we're just trying to hit a lot of obscure spots. I don't even know we're going after this today. I mean, we left the car in, I think safe hands. The mechanics said that, have a look at it. But yeah, let's see. Maybe I'll see about driving to West Virginia after this, but we're just winging it. Like I called it a bit of a farewell tour.

I just want to just pull up to gyms and train with the people, the real people in the country that are like, don't generally have access. That's something I really appreciate because when I came up with the sport, Adelaide, Australia, we didn't have too many high level guys pass through. So it's always been in the back of my mind. It's like, I try to visit destinations that don't have access like places like Venezuela. Like I try to hit these spots, even Ukraine, try to train with the boys in Ukraine and stuff like that. Like, so that's these spots, even Ukraine, try to train with the boys in Ukraine and stuff like

that. Like so that's one way I'm trying to grow the sport that you did. So it's just even just showing up, hanging out with them, rolling with them, you know what I mean? It really helped. Where's Lachlan from? Giles?

Lachlan's Melbourne, born and raised, good in Melbourne today. Okay, okay. I didn't know people. I didn't, I don't, I'm not too familiar with like how the Aussies split out on the country. Uh, where did you train here in DC yesterday? Oh

Actually trained because the captain of the American team or the coach the American team is got who Greg Saudis Dude, I used to train under Greg Saudis. Oh really years ago. Like maybe maybe I'm not even bushing maybe ten years ago I like Greg a lot. I know it's the people get all over his case about the ecological thing. Dude, he's one of the fucking best instructors I've ever had. Like no bullshit. Greg, he, he left the school I was at and I sent him a note even telling him how fucking good he was because I was so bummed when I found out he left. So you weren't in what crazy eighty eight. No, he teaches now at oh man, I should remember the name of the gym. Standard Jiu Jitsu. Oh, out in Maryland.

Maryland, yeah, I think what, 30 minutes away? Yeah, give or take, yeah. But he's got two guys in his team from his gym, the Corbe brothers, so we went down there, I rolled with them, 10 minutes each, that was enough for me. The cardio was absent, but yeah, we just checked in with him, watched him how he runs the room, you know, like, I think a lot of people get caught up in his aggressive interview energy. But yeah, lovely guy, from my experience. And he has a good heart, like he's trying to change the sport as you did see through the way he coaches and like from everything I can see, he's running it like a

professional wrestling room, like a practice room. It's a room for practice. So it's like, there's a lot of marketing in there, right? Like no drilling and stuff like that. But yeah, at the end of the day, I think his heart's in the right place. Well, when he was teaching at the time, this must have been, I'm gonna guess here, circa 2016, something like that. I could be wrong about that.

I don't know if he had what we would call today an ecological approach, but the first time I ever trained with him, I remember thinking I'd never had an instructor who, we were doing guard passing in the gi, how he could just connect all the dots through like, here's what the objective is, here's what your assignment is to reach the objective,

here's why. And I remember being like, because you go to a lot of Jiu Jitsu schools and they're like, all right, we're gonna train a guillotine today, you know what I mean? And they kind of mechanically show you how it's done, but they don't really explain why things are the way they are. I don't know.

I, I thought he was fucking awesome. So. Yeah, I think I mean it's just goal orientated training, right? And it's like allowing people to be creative in the pursuit of the goal, whether that be a position or submission. So I think like, uh, any room with high level guys that allows for creativity and discussion is going to do a the East Coast. You know I'm not a big plan guy. Okay, the tentative plan was to hit the East Coast, right? And then hit the West Coast and at the end of the West Coast run, just essentially head

into Vegas for CJI, right? That's the plan. That's the plan. I see. Okay. So between now, so the plan is to hit, are you going to go all the way down to Florida? Yeah. So I'm going to hit up Floor Gra to hit, are you going to go all the way down to Florida? Yeah. So I'm going to hit up a flow grappling, have an event who's number one and my boy, Owen

Jones is competing HGIT group on that. And that's some real interesting matchups. My buddy, Kit Dale's competing in the main event. Another Aussie pioneer to an extent. Yeah. Another bloody Aussie. Now he's come out of a, he's basically come out of retirement. Like he disappeared for a while, but now he's making a run for it again.

And he's always been one of the most talented guys I've ever trained with. We actually competed against each other one time, but it was a bit of a fake match because we're friends, but, uh, yeah, he's phenomenal. So it's great to see him coming back. He actually did the CGI trials in Australia and put on a really, really good performance. And he was one of the guys I think paved the way shaped me early in my career. Cause he was being an idiot, making stupid videos, funny videos and stuff like that. And I saw how that helped him transcend the regular sort of Jiu-Jitsu field.

He really helped him stand out, make money in the sport and stuff like that. So I would say Kidell is very influential on sort of me being a professional idiot myself. I remember him distinctly for two reasons. One, he got his black belt very quickly. Yeah. And I think because he had some kind of, at the time he had some kind of... Moneyberg quick. So this is Moneyberg, I forget what's his first name? Derek. Derek. This is the guy who got his black belt and like literally what they say three and a half years at 46 years old, motherfucker, I'm 45. It hurts to nap

on one side. Like I just have a very hard time believing that that's even achievable even for like a you know uh a Terrell Owens level athlete but okay that aside and then the other part was um to the funny videos. I mean he made a foray into acting for a while did right? I I recall that. He did. He did. He said his brother is actually like quite a good director. His brother's like stood out in the directing field. So like I think both of those guys have worked together a lot but yeah Kit did have a bit of a forehand to acting. You know what's

so funny about this tour you're on it kind of occurred to me when you when I when I when I heard about it, I was like, dude this sounds like a political campaign. That's what we're thinking with like uh Hunter S. Thompson on the camp. Dude, just just handshaking people, grassroots door to door. That's how it's done. Kissing people's babies without asking, that's my style. Yeah.

That is actually the jujitsu style, sadly. Yeah, no, oh God, that's a whole nother conversation. But I gotta tell you, dude, you know what's so funny about it, you clown jujitsu and it's like, I saw a video the other day where you were laughing at people at B-Team who are open-minded on Sundays, they don't go home to their families, they got nothing to do and they'll keep jujitsu gay and stuff.

But it's like, dude, at the end of the day, like, I don't know anybody who loves jujitsu more than you. If I can be honest, like the level of care you're putting into safeguarding its future, it's quite remarkable. I'm trying to guide the culture as best I can. Cause it is like a, it is a painful, it's a mutant culture, brother. People out there posting line quotes on Instagram and stuff like that, it's wild. You know, we need to fix it. It's a lot of, I feel like Jiu-Jitsu is one of those places

where people who go, that's where they get social time. Absent that, they don't have a lot of social time, and I'm generalizing, obviously, but it seems like that's your experience as well. Yeah, that's fair for sure. I mean, I mean, the average dude that trains probably has a nine to five. He has a family. So typically speaking, they can be trained in the morning or at night. So busy on the weekends with the family or work. So it's really, yeah, that is pretty much the only social time.

And I think it draws you away from other friends that don't train because everyone's a bit competitive. They want to get good. They want to get good. They want to put in the hours and beat up their training partners. So that does become their social circle. It's kind of a cult. For CGI too, it's interesting, right?

I want to talk about the difference in the format but the first thing was, the CGI one was interesting because of how. Can't be got to see it, yeah. Well, the kiss was really quite remarkable but no, it was so subversive because ADCC has been this established brand in the sport and then here comes CJI, same weekends or

more or less, so it was a slight difference, but same city, same weekend, fuck your life, we're going to do it this way. But you have no ADCC backdrop this time. It's kind of floating on its own, obviously. I wonder, has that created more challenges because you have less of a villain to antagonize? For sure, for sure. It was always good to have a villain.

I think it's like, it's narrative driven. And again, that brings me back to Japanese MMA and that evolved out of pro wrestling, right? So like, I think pro wrestling do storylines incredibly well. So I think like CGI One had this perfect sort of villain and along the lines, unfortunately, that villain makes a bad decisions that made life a lot easier for us. So we had this narrative of against the man.

I do consider us to have a villain for this next event. And that villain would be any event that blocks their athletes from competing for us. And we do have a bit of a villain. That's a villain with a very strong legal team. And actually for a crew of people that are anti-cancel culture, they're quite sensitive. They're quite a sensitive group of people. This is my favorite thing about UFC.

We're the free speech place and I'm like, they are the most censorious organization in all of sports. Dana White is easily the most sensitive guy in the entirety of combat sports. It's a, I mean, listen, they can, they can operate their business how they want. And it's obviously been very successful, but the claim that what they're committed to is the free expression of ideas is fucking comical. It's true. It's true. Yeah. I mean, they are, they are free speech for some

things, but yeah, they do. Slurs. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Bryce Mitchell, marketing manager over there. But we do for us, like it is difficult in this sense because like, it's hard to villainize an organization that kids grew up watching and idealize.

Right. So it's like, it's, I mean, people will take smaller paychecks to be associated with that organization and that's kind of the dream they do sell these athletes. They do that in the major. Yeah. So it's like we do have an uphill battle here and I don't really think we necessarily need a villain for this event like for me what I'm so invested in is basically I wanted to show CJ I won the perfect format like obviously we stole the pit and a license, but we stole it.

We wanted to perfect format for like an individual tournament style, but it's always been my dream to showcase quintet as, as I imagined it, which is sort of like a five on five last man standing type of thing. Like, I don't think there would be a more exciting thing in the sport of jiu jitsu than to see one athlete submit five people in a row. type of thing. Like I don't think there would be a more exciting thing in the sport of Jiu-Jitsu than to see one athlete submit five people in a row and that's what we have the possibility to do here. So although we do a villain arc is very nice it is a playful it's a playful villain this time and we got I do have to be careful about what I say because uh expensive legal fees but

for this event the main goal is really like uh to showcase how exciting that team aspect of Jiu-Jitsu can be and it's really like a uniting factor like we're over in New York and I was envisioning myself as uh Cyrus from the Warriors who were uniting the

gangs together. Warriors. Yeah. Come out and play. Yeah. That one before you got shot down by the rival organization but yeah like basically like, uh, the teams are kind of like gangs and everyone's coming together to showcase the most exciting aspects of Jujitsu and we've got a lot of Really all-round support and grassroots support from the first one for this one. But yeah, I mean to see like, uh,

New Wave and B-Team Like just being in an event together. I feel like we've already accomplished something team like just being in an event together. I feel like we've already accomplished something very good with that and really like it is the end of the road for both those teams. So the only chance you'll get to see to what that beef play out is at CJR2. Why is it the end of the road? Because obviously they're gonna become Kingsway. So is New Wave just like disintegrating? I mean I don't know how they're going to structure it, but they do have a new premises. It is Kingsway. I'll shout them out, even though the coach is a bit

of asshole, but, um, I will shout him out. Kingsway. Obviously you can have fantastic instruction there, but you will have an alternative with the B team boys rebranding. It'll probably be, I'm calling it out. It'll probably be called simple man, Jiu-Jitsu or simple man martial arts. Okay. So the rebrand. So obviously B team and New Wave's when U abs were the names of the teams when that beef was real. So if you wanna see it play out, see you got to. Okay.

It sounds like the Bulls quintet thing that you did through B team really had a very strong impact on you. It sounds like that's what inspired this whole event. Yeah. I mean, I've done quintetet before and Quintet would do super teams kind of Yeah. Respect to 10th Planet. 10th Planet would participate and they would have their own team and they always used to say it should be real teams. Eddie Bravo never took that idea in Ramada. I stole that idea. They were preaching to the choir there. I thought the idea of real

team versus real team is the most exciting, right? Like if you do super teams, you're gonna have some DuPont-like character come in and just build the best team possible. So like the idea of it being real teams adds this sort of fairness factor to it. And I think at the end of the day, people wanna see fair competition.

There will be mismatches because of the weight discrepancies. Right. Because we're gonna have a 66, 77, 88, under 99, over 99. So basically your 80 cc weight division representatives from your team are going to go to war with another team. I love it. I think it's going to be... I actually think the action will be better this time. Now obviously it's going to be hard to reproduce what Rolotolo and Taka did last time.

That's pretty special, gliding in the bottle. But to the point you raised, the format lends itself to a little craziness, it feels like. Yes, and there's obviously Vince McMahon being a personal inspiration to me. We are stealing the Royal Rumble format. And that is the- Explain that.

I mean, I know what Royal Rumble is, but how are you implementing it? So what Quintet would do, and again, I think Quintet did but how are you implementing it? So what quintet would do and again? I think we've set did a fantastic job. I just wanted to alter it slightly, but I still want to give Props to quintet. So we are this is in my opinion an incarnation of quintet, right? So like I'm like other organizations that think ideas fall out of the sky Plans on their own I give credit to quintet this, but the way we're changing it is Quintet, you would know the five man lineup basically immediately

and you couldn't change that order. What we're gonna have is the coaches. So it could be Nikki Ryan and John Danaher, one on each side. Nikki Ryan calls in his first guy, reveal he comes out. Danaher calls in his first guy, he comes out. They calls him his first guy. He comes out. They fight it out, but the rest of the team is backstage. So based on the result of that match, and if it goes to a draw, they're both eliminated, but let's say our guy, Nikki Ryan's guide defeats John Dana, this guy.

John will have a time period to decide who he wants next. Oh shit And then we're gonna do a 10 second timer on the wall. It's gonna be a massive reveal so I think just like the excitement for whole shit is cool coach perspective crowd perspective is It's kind of like a bit of a Pokemon battle meets Royal Rumble here. I mean, it's gonna be phenomenal to watch like Coaches have to make the decision on the spot.

They're going to have to be like, who do I think can beat this guy? Call in John Carla. You know what I mean? So we're really going to see coaches at play. Whereas generally, most of the coaching is done in the back. The coach is going to have to really strategically think about which of his guys can beat this next guy. So I really love that aspect of it and that reveal aspect.

That's what I'm most excited for. Price money this time is a little bit different, right? It's not one million to one guy, one million to another. It's a little bit more evenly distributed. That might have been unsustainable. Honestly, I don't know. But it certainly worked as a marketing gimmick. I can say that this time it'll be $10,002 to show up.

Right. A little bump. Inflation adjusted and the winning team will take him a million. So each athlete will take home $200,000 each. I see. But if you lose, you still get the $10,000. Right, right. Let's talk about some of the teams. You mentioned New Wave is on there. Yeah, we got New Wave. Big Dan is on the New Wave team. Big Dan is on the New Wave team. I do have Big Dan's sincere apology. I bullied him for a long time after the team the big wave is on there. Yeah, he's in there and Dorian Olivares used to train with us. One of the best 66 He's a two-time ADCC. He's very good. Yeah. He's in there and Dorian Olivares who used to train with us. One of the best sixty-six guys in the

world. Obviously, joining the dark side. I forgive you Dorian and your dad and we will have an announcement about their 77 kilo wild card coming soon. Did you try to get Gordon to compete? Did you even like make an attempt? I've given, I mean,

no, I didn't make an attempt. It's a tough call to make, you know, it's a tough one to I don't think you worked it out with John Dan. I saw the Instagram photos and whatnot because he's he's seem to be level headed about it. Yeah and I think that's the key factor

there is that uh John is at the end of the day, level headed individual and John really cares about the sport of Jiu Jitsu as well and where it goes and I think I know Jones loves Japan, loves Japanese MMA. Right. So he won't stop using the language. Yeah, he's still he's still the language. So basically for him to get him involved, we really have to put some differences aside but really he sees the great

identity of an Gordon. I don't think we compete. I think he's health issue. I think truly he's done this time. Like, like no matter what, like no event, no organization, no nothing. He's cooked. I mean, if we're enough money, for sure, someone could lure him back in. But I think generally speaking, yeah, he's, he's out now. So like, I don't even entertain the conversation that

John told me the same thing that yeah, he, John's told me a few times he's not coming back, but he comes back. But this time I do believe that yeah, Gordon's out. Okay. One of the interesting teams that you have, and the reason why I say this is because some of these guys were competing at ADCC last time and you couldn't get them. Michael Pixley out of Daisy Fresh, very excited about him. He obviously had a very important submission to ADCC.

I'm sure you, I saw that you, um, that made you quite happy last time around. Yeah. And I need to explain this, right? Because this was actually a sore point in the conversation with Dan. Right. Mary Gali, he does play a character for the media, you know, like him before the match. Obviously, he's going full Rio style blonde platinum hair. He's posting how he's already won. He's like he's talking the talk. He's like Ilya Toporia. Yeah. Yeah. But ultimately, like and again, he lost, believe it was the first or second round. I remember. I think it was second. I think he won first. Yeah, that's right. Actually, Pixley is an incredible wrestler and Pixley has an incredible hit-toss,

wizard kick. And sometimes us grapplers think we're better wrestlers and we are because we're wrestling with other jujitsu guys and then pixie comes across with his elite level wrestling and he hits it on Mary Gali once and then on the second time he hits a Mary Gali makes that fatal mistake and it's just it's an instinctual thing if your heads going towards the ground you post and it injured his shoulder another time. I didn't know how serious that injury was. So I did enjoy it not just from a personal level, but because of what he'd been hosting, you know what I mean? Like, it is fun to see someone

talk so much and then fall short. Oh, yeah. Part of combat sports fandom. Yeah, it is part of it. But I do have a very galley apology because I do feel bad because I think he's had three surgeries on that show. Oh, fuck. Catastrophe. Yeah, really catastrophic injury. So like, although in the heat of the moment, that was funny. In the big picture type of thing, it's like, it is a huge loss of the sport to not have him competing. Even though he does this thing that causes sort of like a lot of negative energy towards him, it does put pressure on him to have to

perform. And I do feel bad. I'm not, I don't feel bad. He lost. I feel bad that he got hurt and that you dunked on him like Prime Shack Thing was set up CJ and so I was watching on the TV screen there and at the time I didn't think was very funny just because it was a big win for us as an organization It's like one of their stars lose especially a guy that was like kind of annoying on social media But yeah, I got I don't know probably Miracoli. I hope he doesn't have a problem with me. I hope he shows the hills off. I've had shoulder surgery. It fucking blows. So I love Pixley. Everyone thinks you have to get the D1 wrestlers but I've always said this you get some

scrappy D2 guys. That's great for the sport too though there's plenty of talent there that can contribute in really important ways. He's one of those guys. Nicky Rowe wasn't even D1. Look at the damage he does. Exactly, exactly. So, okay, so we got B Team, New Wave, Daisy Fresh. 10th Planet has a team, right? 10th Planet has a team. Who's on 10th, so I'm guessing Gio Martinez is on that, right?

Gio, PJ Bart, PJ Bart's one of the best rappers in the world today. We've got Ryan Aiken, we've got Kyle Bame, and I feel so bad. I think I'm forgetting one name. It's all right. that five weight visions from your own team. And some of the guys that represent smaller teams might not have found a position, right? Like their team didn't have enough people to fill this spot, but we still wanted it in the event. And we liked the idea of a wild card.

So it's still predominantly your team, but you have that wild card option where it's like, oh, we don't have a 66er, we'll call this guy in. And that's what, I mean, we, B-Team did that. We brought in Victor Hugo. So we've got Ethan Kramenstein, Joseph Chan, Joseph from the best, I think is the best athlete out there today in terms of a technical sense. Um, we have my memories, Chris Wojcik, we have Nikki rod and we have Victor Hugo and Victor Hugo. It's great that

him and Nikki right to come together because Nikki road has lost to him four times. Unfortunately, that his Victor Hugo has proven to be his kryptonite. Unfortunately, but they put their, they didn't really have any differences, but obviously it's like Nikki road. It's going to be hard to have another match against Victor after they trained together for this event. You know? So that's Nikki road props him, but as you go aside, brought in the guy that beat him and gets a scrap with him all the time. Yeah. The incredible who else are the guy that beat him and gets a scrap with him all the time. Yeah, incredible. Who else are the teams that I'm missing?

Is there an Australian team as well? Like a super team? Yeah, we got an Australian team. Lachlan Giles is heading that up. We got, man, you're testing my memory here today. Hey, there's a lot of teams. We got Balau. Balau's a bit of a wild card draw there. He's like kind of an unknown, but really, really talented. I remember Lachlan G was telling me before the trials that he thought Belair would secure one of the spots in the

team. I didn't know who Belair was, but yeah, he proved very dangerous. They've got Declan Moody. Unfortunately, Levi had to pull out. He has a back injury. He was so fucking awesome last year too. What a revelation he was. Yeah, I'm super disappointed. I always feel like Levi's on the cusp. Like he in the GEE, he was about to do what no Aussie had ever done. I believe at the time that was when a black belt world title in the game,

everyone thought that was impossible. And he, um, he beat Lucas that pretty, and he got double DQ and he disappeared for a while after the world championships. And then obviously he had his CGI performance, an incredible run. And now we sort of. Disappeared again, a little bit, you know, like he's obviously dealing with some injuries and stuff. So it's sad we lost him, but we got Kenza Iwamoto replacing him. Who's a guy that's trained to beat him a lot.

Trained a lot with Joseph Chan. We've got Lucas Cannard and Lucas is the Aussie kid that upset Victor Huger. So Victor was like probably the betting favorite for CJI 1 in the heavyweight division. Basically, it was it was going to be Victor and Nicky run the finals. Lucas comes out as an unknown and way under size. the and then he's going to beat the first round and that was just like that won the submission of the tournament was just absolutely blown away and then it's 66 kilos. Who is it in team Australia? They're going to crucify me

for this. Wow. What a **** trader you are. Yeah. They won't welcome me back now. 66. Who is it? Okay. Remember it's alright. We'll we'll we'll share links and people can check it out on their own and then of course, there's two more things I want to get to one. The women's side actually has a bit of a bracket this time

with some big names on there, some ADCC champions on there from actually Adele one. She's Australian. She won ADCC last year. She's going to be at CGI this time. She came out of nowhere. She came out of nowhere, really, like obviously a lot of people in the sharing scene knew how good she was, but she just came out of nowhere and double gold.

And it's like, Holy shit. Yeah. First ADCC double gold. Then we have Anna Vieira and a Vieira one ADCC in her weight division. And she beat the third contestant we have in there. And that is Helena Kraber and her lane is like a new wave, new wave child prodigy. And that was props to John on this, because like when I was talking to John about being like, yo, can we please have a team you have, like, this wouldn't be right without a team new wave.

Like it's like, can we missed out on you guys for CJI one, you guys stuck the course with ADCC loyal to ADCC. I'm like, we need you for CJI too. And he was, was a bit hesitant. But one of the things he did say is like, we, I really want a spot for Helena. the you know, what it serves. Did Fion Davies like y'all have a falling out or something like that? Uh it has its ups and downs. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Like um I know she got some. I don't know. Gordon doesn't like her. I didn't know how that pertained to you. That's actually probably uh an endearing quality in it. If Gordon doesn't like that's probably that's like that's a

great review of you as a human being I think but yeah I love Fion. Fion's awesome. Fion's paved the way in the sport as like a role model for so many women in the sport. And she was one of the first people to come across for CGI one. So like love her for that. She donated a huge portion of her prize money to, uh, a charity group in Gaza for kids. So like props to her for giving away so much money on that. I worked so,

so hard to get McKenzie done. McKenzie was obviously hesitant because it's like, she's been out of the game so long. You know, she's been in an MMA and MMA is a vastly different thing. Like we see submissions in MMA, but like, Fion's just training grappling. It's so hard. McKenzie was the best girl at the time in her weight division back in 2015 when she won ADCC.

So like, I know even from my own personal experience, like to face the next up and comer after being away that long is a tall order, but we're able to secure Mackenzie Dern. And I wanted to show how exciting female wrapping can be. And that was one of the big peaks on the broadcast and kind of like the falling out was me just being like, uh, a bit disappointed that she did sign a deal with the UFC. She said that she was allowed to do CGI. They had a CGI clause in there.

I haven't seen the contract. I don't know, but based on my dealings with them, their athletes won't be able to do. CJI. So like, I kind of like, and I might have said in a more of an emotional moment, but I was just like, Oh, well you support and other women, other women athletes had come to me and said, well, now if I have to face Fionn, I kind of have to sign an exclusive deal with the UFC. And if you, from a pure athletic perspective, if you want to face the best, but you have to accept

the contract, you're not happy with the face. I'm like, well, that puts face the best, but you have to accept the contract you're not happy with to face her. I'm like, well, that puts all the other women in a bit of an awkward spot. So like, I had said some things about obviously, if you were for the sport for women in the sport, you wouldn't be locked down to an exclusive contract. But on the other side, I have to remember that like, she's got to take care of herself. She got to take care of making money for herself. So really no skin off her back for deal doing that at the time. We hadn't exclusively locked down the four woman CJI division. So in retrospect, if I could do it again, but obviously there's so

many things happen on the fly. We're trying to organize so many things, talking to all these rappers like hurting cats, you know? So it's like at the time when I knew the UFC was entering the market, we started getting our contracts out early for these teams and these athletes because it was one of those things where it's like, if they're locked in for August, they now have to if they sign an exclusive contract, there has to be an exemption because I've already got a contractually obligated obligation to perform at our event. So we were trying to get ahead of these exclusive contracts

and at the time we hadn't locked down the women's prize money. We hadn't locked down the women's division. So I couldn't offer anything tangible to Theon at the time to get her to sign. So it was a gray area, it was a disagreement, but I love Theon. Fair enough. Before we wrap, the super fight,

last year was Gabby Garcia, which was hilarious. This one is equally, maybe not equally, but I would say also there's a lot of lighthearted vibe to it. You versus Olympic champ, NCAA champ, Gable Stevenson. Was it hard to convince him to do it? You know what? I said this before we caught him at a vulnerable moment. Obviously he's coming off a loss and I do my best work when I notice someone's at a vulnerable moment, the is down. He's down to go there. I have a scrap, you know, like obviously I hope he doesn't break my spinal leaf permanent injury. That's what I'm hoping for. But yeah, it's going to be a fun one. I do 100% intend to kiss him as a face off as well. The rule set is what is the rule set for the super fight the same as any of the other matches? The quintet matches would just be eight

minutes. Okay. Last year in the tournament style, we did three three by five some five by fives for the Final this one will be three five minute rounds scored just like a regular CGI match. Okay, so I'm trying to go Helio Gracie style when he faced the massive Gito dude and got his arm broken. Hopefully it's Okay. No. Yeah, hopefully it's a role of us. Oh, yeah If I may before you know, I respect you, but I have to ask this. Gable does have a weird relationship with the fans, stemming from a 2019 arrest. Now ultimately the charges were dropped. This is a sexual assault charge.

I could be wrong about the actual terminology, so please forgive me. Some folks are wondering why you're doing business with him, to which you would say. I mean, to be honest, I did not know about that until after the match. And I haven't discussed that with him. Once the contract was signed, you know, like I don't, I really don't know enough about it. I actually, the only reason I heard about it is cause I heard he had, like I. So he had the thing with pro wrestling went poorly and someone told me, I

forget how long ago it was like, Oh, the fans fans turned on him and I was like, well, why? And then they sent me some of the news articles about it. And I guess it has something to do with a law that was passed at the time that allowed him and this other guy to kind of skate, but it didn't necessarily exonerate them. I mean, it did in the legal sense, but not in the public perception sense. Yeah, it's obviously it's difficult. We had the, um, and nothing on that scale.

Obviously we had to navigate the Jay road situation, the gym, which is very difficult with, um, being Nikki Rhodes brother, we had some problems there, but yeah, like, uh, it is a, it's a difficult area to work through. I understand. Like, it's like, uh, if we were to find individuals in the sport without skeletons in the closet, we'd probably have no event, unfortunately, you know, and there has been some pushback and a couple of one athlete particular that I allowed to compete in this event, but yeah, we did do the deal with Gable.

So I have to take all the heat for that, but like, for the most part, like the teams, I'm just like, I'm trying to distance myself from that side of things by being like, I picked the coach, the coach picks the athletes, you know? But yeah, that is, I think that's a difficult thing for in all of combat sports, you know, and you should try to navigate around people's what's happened in the past. You know, like it's, no, it's a challenge for every single promoter in the sport. I mean, it's what do you do?

Um, can you have a puritanical version of promoting? I don't, I don't think that you can, but where do you draw the line? It's not really, yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, that's the difficult thing, right? Obviously my name's on the event, but yeah, there's like a lot of people going into it. So it's like, it's, it's hard to find opponents that'll who view is in, you know, like, I'll have to look more into the gable thing, but yeah, as far like from a personal point, it sounds like a cop out, but he seemed like a lovely guy.

So I'm not exactly sure the details and what actually happened. Tickets for CJI. How do folks get them? I don't know the exact link, but if you go to Google and you go CJI two tickets, there'll be two links. We actually had a few ticketing issues. So if you're international, try to find the international site. If you're a US based, find the domestic site.

But if you use the team code words of the athletes, obviously they're great. They're great marketers. These athletes are sharing them every day, faith in them no doubt, but you get a 10% discount if you use the athletes code. Will it look the same this time? Is it looked because the same venue, Thomas and Max Center, is it going to any difference in production this time? I mean, it's going to look the same. It's going to have the same alley, but obviously we have that war rumble factor. So we're going to do our final walkthrough end of mean, it's going to look the same. It's going to have the same alley. But obviously we have that war rumble factor. So we're right now we're going to do our final walkthrough end of July. I'm going to just brainstorm because obviously we have to deal with copyrighted

music. I wish we could have some John Cena ship playing as people. They do the reveal. So we have to sort of navigate how we're going to do those reveals. You know, who knows what my walking will be? I haven't picked a song yet. I'm hoping that they can drop me from the sky to appear behind Gable and get a head start. But yeah, we're gonna have some fun with the production.

We're putting a lot of effort into the creative aspects of the production. I don't want it to be a boring, run-of-the-mill cookie cutter event. Right. And then last but not least, if folks just want to get involved, learn more about the Good Fight Foundation,

where can you send them? All right, yeah. I mean, if you look up Fair Fight Foundation. Where can you send them? All right. Yeah. I mean, if you look up Fair Fight Foundation, see our website, you see sort of the things we're involved in right now. We're really largely working with Guardian program. So if you want to support Guardian, they take donations. If you want to donate your time, if you're a Jiu Jitsu athlete or whatever yourself, you can go visit these schools.

And like, yeah, that's for me, it's for the most fulfilling work I've found is like you can have a these schools and like, yeah, that's for me, it's for the most fulfilling work I've found is like you can have a tangible change on these kids lives. So for CGI one, a lot of money was donated to things like Tap Cancer Hour, which is obviously cancer research. We donate money to a Ukrainian children's hospital. But in terms of like changing the sport of Jiu Jitsu, building schools for kids around the world is something amazing because we can.

It's something tangible for people to see, get behind, you know what I mean? Like, unfortunately, like people just think, oh, don't know, it's a cancer researcher dropping the bucket. But in terms of me building these schools, me and Seth building these schools for kids around the world, we get to go there. We get to meet the kids. We get to see how the school is helping them. So it's something tangible we get to kind of work with. And really, like, it's quite fulfilling to see the kids' lives get to see how the school is helping them. So, it's something tangible we get to uh kind of work with and

really like it's quite fulfilling to see the kids live soundtrack. Fabricio Andres under 66 Team Australia. That's it. That's the wild card. That's why I forgot. Fabricio has played my favorite. He honestly has played my favorite athlete in the entire sport. He's one of the most exciting. He has this little thing he does before the matches and in terms of the danger at 66, he has beaten Jean Carlo Badoni and that is as big a wild card as you can he's a great player. I think he does before the matches and in

terms of a danger at 66, he has beaten Giancarlo Badoni and that is as big a wild card as you can get. Greg Jones, it is quite the heavy lift you're undertaking. I think, you know, I couldn't imagine a better person to do it. Um Jiu Jitsu

is lucky to have you. Don't **** die on America's roads. Uh going place to place but um. Don't tell us where I am. They're coming. I won't tell lies. Um but good luck with it and I know this has been an awkward setup. Uh thank you for making some time

and and talking to us and invaded your personal space. Um. Yeah, I went away for now. Alright, well now I got a roommate. Uh alright. Well, I appreciate everyone tuning in. Craig Jones. Thanks to all you who watched and stuck around. I

know it was an unusual episode today but we appreciate it and until next time, may all of your gains be loyal. Ugh, come on, why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech? Upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Ultralight, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity with Intel Core Ultra processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance

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